I Love When You Interrupt Me

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

(James 4:13-15)

—

Had firm plans
good reason to go
prayer and anticipation
preparations finalized
all details covered
we’re ready to go
thankful for what’s ahead.
Started the day knowing
what we would do
but a call comes
everything changes in a second
confusion sets in
minds race
can’t go.
What now?
If not now, when?
Why?

With plans interrupted
we are confronted with truth:
we are not in control
every human plan
submits to a greater
divine plan
every rational initiative
submits to divine reason
every human choice
submits to divine will
no matter what we want
no matter how we think
no matter what we believe
no matter how much power
we assign to ourselves
the universe moves
in submission to its
Creator King.

We have been designed
to purpose and to plan.
We have been crafted to think
our way through life.
We have been gifted with the ability
to choose a path and to walk it.
In the exercise of these amazing gifts
we must humbly bow in recognition
of the providence of God.
He is what is best for us.
He knows what is best for us.
His reasons rest in the
secret of his holy counsel.
He is good in every way
completely devoid of evil
thought or intention.
There is no malevolence in
his motivation.
He looks on us with boundless love.
In his wisdom
he will act in ways that confuse us
leading us into moments
that distress us.
He is the ultimate definition of
wisdom
holiness and
love.

So, it is not wise for us
when plans lay shattered
before us
to doubt his goodness
or curse his interruptions.

—

The Bible is a chronicle of divine interruptions, an account of how God intervenes to make a better way.

He interrupted the human story with the great flood, stopping the flood of iniquity on earth. God interrupted Jonah as he ran away from God’s call. He interrupted Nebuchadnezzar’s glory-obsessed reign. He interrupted Paul and his violent persecution of the church.

There was no bigger or better interruption than the incarnation of Jesus. God invaded human history to do for us what we never could have done for ourselves. He sent his Son to conquer sin and death, so that rather than being slaves to sin we can know the freedom of his grace and life now and forever.

And he will interrupt human history to usher in the new heavens and the new earth.

God regularly interrupts the lives and plans of his children, but not simply because he has the power to do whatever he wants to do. Every interruption of the Lord is the result of his wisdom, power, and love.

Because God loves us, he interrupts us. These interruptions are never a change in God’s sovereign will but are often a significant disruption of our plans for ourselves.

Sometimes God interrupts his children to set them on a new and better pathway. Sometimes he interrupts their lives to reveal his presence and glory to them once again. God often interrupts his children to protect them from themselves. At other times, God interrupts their lives to protect them from others.

And his timing in doing so is always right.

Every divine interruption is wise and good. Every divine interruption reveals God’s constant attention to and interaction with the lives of his children. He is constantly watching, he never withdraws his care, he always knows what is best, and he exercises his power and authority to flip the script whenever he chooses.

We all belong to the Creator, and he will interrupt our lives as he wills and knows is best. May God, in wisdom and power, continue to grace us with divine interruptions until his final interruption, when all things will be made new again.

A Prayer for Today: God, help me to understand that every one of your interruptions in my life is both wise and good. Help me recognize that your divine interruptions are evidence of your constant care, attention, and interaction with me as your child. I want to believe that you always know what’s best for me, but I admit that I struggle to believe it when my life’s circumstances seem chaotic to me. Lord, help me to trust you through all your divine interruptions in my life, and remind me that one day all things will be made new when your glorious final interruption breaks through into this world. In Jesus’ name, amen.

God bless,

Paul Tripp

Discussion Prompt for Children

• When things don’t go the way you want or plan for them to go, how do you normally respond? How do you see me responding when things don’t go the way I plan them? How can we both help each other to respond better, knowing that God is in control and ruler of everything, everywhere, all the time?

• Why do you think God’s timing is always right?

Reflection Questions

1. What is your average response when the plans you have don’t go the way you want them to go? Why do you think life’s interruptions frustrate you the way they do? What might actually be behind the frustration you experience?

2. What would it look like if you practically lived as if every interruption of the Lord was the result of his wisdom, power, and love in your life? Why do you think we as people often live as if our plans for ourselves are better than God’s plan for us? What kind of heart change would need to happen in you that you would truly live as if God’s plan is better?

3. How have you witnessed God’s interruptions in your life as evidence for his wisdom, power, and love in your life? Think of and jot down a few examples.

4. Now, how can those past examples of God working in your life inform the way you live presently and also in the future? Why is it important to consistently remind ourselves that God knows best? Where do you see examples of that in Scripture?