I don’t like to be idle. Every morning, I make a list of things I would like to get accomplished. Yet, I rarely get everything on the list crossed out. I used to get really bent out of shape when my plans were waylaid.
Sometimes it’s difficult to differentiate between divine disruptions and ordinary distractions. I’ll be in the middle of a task, and my phone will beep with a notification of some sort that draws me in. Or, I’ll have the urge to forage through my kitchen for a snack or a cup of tea. Sometimes I feel a prompting to pause what I’m doing and reach out to someone, or it might come as a thought to sit still, think, pray, listen, or write something down.
Unlike garden-variety distractions, divine disruptions tend to have an unpredictable spontaneity to them. If I have an urge to stop vacuuming and go eat some cookies, there is nothing surprising or unexpected in that. However, if I have a prompting that comes out of nowhere--to call an acquaintance whom I haven’t contacted in years, or to pray for a friend’s son, or to write an email to a relative who lives halfway around the world--I pay more attention to it. Since these urges don’t make much sense to me, I have to completely trust that this must be a God thing. I don’t immediately act on these urges; I wait for step-by-step instructions and clarifications. I notice how kinks are ironed out as I trustingly carry out the directions. I’m not saying I know for sure that these are God-directed urges--they might be ego driven. Often, when the outcome of my involvement is less than satisfying, it gets even more confusing.
I loved this. Thank you.
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