“As we continue living and working in a ‘world interrupted’...”
That expression ‘a world interrupted’ took me back to when I worked in administration at Uniting College. I had a number of responsibilities including the reception desk. I remember getting frustrated by the interruptions.. phone calls, visitors, emails, …. It was hard to focus on the list of tasks I had before me. It took a while for me to work out that I needed to embrace the interruptions because they were an important part of my work! By treating every interruption as valued as those other things on my list, I became less resentful and found so much joy in my role.
Today as we try to live out our daily lives, we can get frustrated by interruptions… a phone call during dinner, a knock at the door, an email with a new request, and so on.. Each interruption represents a person, a moment, something which in itself is important and to be valued. Without interruptions our lives would be mundane, boring with no change, no progress. We can resent the interruption or we can give it our full attention and be in that moment for just a while.
What can we learn in the interruptions of life? What do they teach us about our life and ourselves? How might they change us?
And now, we find ourselves experiencing a doozy in interruptions, unprecedented in interruptions… the COVID-19 pandemic. Can we apply the same questions? Can we give it our full attention and be in this moment for a while? What is living in a pandemic teaching us about life and ourselves? How might this change us? Can we embrace this interruption?
I invite you to pray with me:
Loving Patient God, we do not naturally enjoy interruptions and we certainly are not enjoying this pandemic! People are falling ill and some are dying, lives are disrupted, jobs have been lost, people are hungry, isolated and anxious.
Yet, you call us to life overflowing.. What does that look like in a pandemic? Help us to give full attention to this strange new world we find ourselves in and to be fully in this moment of time.
Help us to be aware of your presence in all our moments.
Help us to be open to what we can learn about life and ourselves in this time. Shine a light on those things we need to see.
Help us to be open to whatever change may come out of those new insights. Help us to look forward with hope to whatever those changes will bring. Amen
(1) (Seriously Optimistic Online News May 2020, St Luke's Innovative Resources)
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