Today’s Reflection
“THEN LITTLE CHILDREN were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them. …” These disciples aren’t bad or evil persons. They just know about priorities. … Matthew declares up front that people have brought these children to Jesus for no big reason. All they desire from Jesus are his touch and prayers for the little ones You don’t have to be God’s gift to humanity to touch children or pray for them. Anybody can do that. People with less important things to do can do that. Don’t bother the rabbi. Don’t interrupt his ministry.
But as one of my preaching mentors once said, interruptions often are the ministry: the phone call in the midst of sermon preparation, the drop-in visit at the office, all the unscheduled moments when matters we thought important enough to block out time on the calendar for are met with opportunities to respond to another human being. Now here’s the catch. Life and ministry don’t work that way just for ordained ministers. God splatters each of our lives with unheralded yet opportune moments that come at us out of nowhere. And we’re left to decide in that figurative or literal split second: What and who is more important?
God of the child, Lord of every moment, expected or not, open my prayers and heart to the unexpected ways in which you come to me. Allow me to be surprised and distracted into ministry and prayer that touches the lives of your children. In Jesus Christ. Amen.
- John Indermark
Traveling the Prayer Paths of Jesus
From pages 46-47 of Traveling the Prayer Paths of Jesus by John Indermark. Copyright © 2003 by John Indermark. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question
What interruptions to your day have turned out to be opportunities for ministry? Share your thoughts.
Today’s Scripture Reading
Answer me when I call, O God of my right! You gave me room when I was in distress. Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer.
Psalm 4:1, NRSV
This Week: pray high school seniors. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section below.
Did You Know?
God has some questions for you! Join author Trevor Hudson for an online course and discussion of his book Questions God Asks Us, April 30 – June 1, 2012 Learn more.
Saints, Inc.:
This week we remember Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (April 17).
Lectionary Readings
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
(As long as they are viewed as ‘interruptions,’ one’s ministry will never be as generous it as fruitful as it could be. And every person, ordained it not, is a minister in the mission of Christ’s church.)
Even in our homes, if we view a child’s sweet presence as interruption, think of the opportunities lost!
What if our heavenly Father viewed our desire for his presence as an interruption to his ‘day’?
Having had my life interrupted, by death and tragedy, I really try– and that is operative, that I try– to view every engagement as opportunity.
Heidi,
Well spoken!
May God Bless
Buzz
How does one define interruptions? For me there are planned for and unplanned opportunities. Interruptions sometimes come in the form of Upper Room comments. I planned for reading the daily devotion today. I did not plan for a brief phrase of encouragement to Heidi. I don’t even know if she is a backstopper so that she’ll ever even see it. To me this is a planned for interruption. My dog interrupted my sleep last night after a very hard week-end of being left alone much too long. He woke me up to feel the reassuring touching of my hand. That was an unplanned interruption. Yet, both were God’s plan to use me to show forth His love. These may have been interruptions to me. They were not so to God. He rewarded me with giving me a momentarily warmed heart. I don’t think these were an interruption to God.