The Gift Of Interruption
When I roast asparagus, I think of Maggie.
I met Maggie on a Tuesday afternoon in the church kitchen, when I was looking for a cup of tea. She was trimming asparagus for a dinner she was preparing for the evening service.
I had just started a job at a new church in a new city. My husband and I had travelled from our home in the Canadian prairies to a city by the ocean. It all felt rather foreign and I was a little homesick.
As Maggie and I talked in the kitchen, I discovered that she had grown up in the prairies too. She still spent her summers painting and vacationing in a small corner of the Rocky Mountains where I had attended summer camp. There is nothing like meeting someone who knows the same mountains as you.
Maggie was like a breath of fresh air. I did not have to explain myself or describe where I was from, she understood. She knew the big open sky of the prairies, the feeling of -40’C on her skin, and the smell of poplars and pine.
Those Tuesday afternoons with Maggie became the highlight of my week. While she prepared the Evensong feast, I would sit on the counter and drink tea. We talked about art, color theory, jazz, Anglicanism, culture, the bible, and Jesus - all the good things.
For an hour every Tuesday, Maggie made space for me to step out of the awkward uneasiness that comes from living in a new city and be at home.
Every week she allowed my intrusion into her supper preparation and I am so thankful that she did.
Maggie offered me the ministry of interruption and she learned it from Jesus.
Throughout the gospels, we read over and over about encounters Jesus had “on the road”. You might remember the stories - the Syrophoenician woman, Jairus, the bleeding woman, the centurion, the lepers, the blind men, and countless others.
Many of these encounters were people that Jesus never saw again.
They were small moments on his journey to Jerusalem. He did not change the course of his life for these people. He did not invite them into his group of disciples. They were just encounters on the road where Jesus allowed himself to be interrupted.
But the work he did in those moment was great.
The longer this pandemic wears on, the more I am convinced that the ministry of interruption might be a something we can actually do in a time of so many don’ts.
The lockdowns and restrictions are hindering our ability to connect meaningfully with others. But, as always, Jesus has something to speak into our strange circumstances.
He is inviting us to be interrupted by the people God puts infront of us.
Interruptions can take many forms, especially in this strange distanced time. They might come while waiting in line for groceries or a chat with an elderly person on the sidewalk in your neighbourhood. It might look like one of your kids needing to share their dreams from last night.
It can also be as simple as someone coming to mind and responding to the prompt by sending off a text, email, or phone call to check in.
The best thing is that it only requires us to be available. God is not asking us to carry these people, but just offer them time for a small moment.
Jesus is inviting us to simply pause what we are doing and respond to God’s interruption in our day. It requires us to look upward and outward to the Holy Spirit's agenda, rather than our own.
In Jesus, we see his ability to do great things in the lives of people he met for a short amount of time. For those of us who have received Him as Lord over our lives, that same spirit lives within us. This is the Good News.
Maggie offered me space to talk and be listened to. The hour or less she offered me, meant that I felt a little less lost in a new city. She allowed herself to be interrupted while trimming asparagus.
I am quite sure that she had no idea how much that experience helped me in that time. It was a completely free and beautiful gift that she offered me when I needed it.
I would like to invite you to be interrupted this week and just see what God might do.
May Jesus open you heart to the interruptions He is sending your way. May you be given the attentiveness of mind to respond and the willingness to lay down your agenda to receive God’s. May the world be a little less lonely for all those you encounter and may the Holy Spirit work through these simple offerings of your time.
In it all - may God be glorified and continue the work of His Kingdom through this restricted time and may you know Jesus a little more as you let yourself be interrupted.
Grace and peace to you, my friend.