interrupt

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Mind Reading Is Something We All Try To Do

It is sometimes difficult to figure out what goes through a person’s mind when you see his or her work.

mind reading is something we all try to do

Everyone at some point is guilty of trying to read the mind of someone else. 

We interrupt what our spouses are saying because we think we know how to finish their sentences.

We interpret the actions of others and come up with a scenario of why they did what they did. … I know I try to read what is going through the minds of some drivers when I’m driving behind them.

Maybe you have heard of the Darwin awards. These are awards given out to people posthumously. They are given to people who died trying to do things that, well, 99.9 percent of the population would never try. 

In May 2019 an ISIS fighter decided to attack some British troops based near Mosul, Iraq. He decided to use a drone that he rigged up with explosives. 

He ran into trouble, however, when he didn’t calculate the time and distance the drone had to travel to deliver the explosive charge. 

When a drone battery gets low, there is a return to home feature that automatically initiates. You can disengage the feature but unfortunately this soldier didn’t and the explosives detonated upon return. 

You kind of wonder what was going through the guy’s mind when he saw the drone getting closer and closer to him. 

We will never know. 

Last night I noticed that my outside Christmas lights didn’t turn on as scheduled. They are hooked up to a wifi outlet that I control and schedule on my phone. The app said it was disconnected so I checked and there was no indicator light visible on the outlet. 

Now this outlet is at the back of our house, but I checked the outlet at the front of the house, just outside our front door. 

Why? Because they are connected to the same circuit, and the outlet by the front door has a built-in circuit breaker. 

Somehow the two outlets – one at the front of the house and the other at the back – are connected together. 

I checked my electrical panel and found that all the outside plugs plus the garage are joined to the same circuit on the panel. But the two outside outlets are specifically connected together through the built-in circuit breaker on the one. 

I’m wondering what was going on in the mind of the electrician. I can see the garage and the front outlet being on the same circuit. After all, they are in the same general area. 

But the outlet in the back?

When he was doing the wiring, did he say, “There are all these wires and outlets close by, but let’s weave a wire through the whole house and connect it to the outlet at the front. I’m sure that will be the first place the owner looks if he loses power to this back outlet.”

Maybe not!

Here’s the thing: Sometimes we question what God is doing in the world. We wonder if He knows what is happening. We ponder why He would let this or that happen. But we see things from our finite, present time, self-centred minds. How could we ever think we could read God’s mind? God’s mind is all-knowing. He understands the beginning and the end, and He holds the whole world together. We should trust God to do what is right and best, and not try to read His mind.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How often do you suppose you know what someone is thinking, only to find out you are way off? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Interruptions Don’t Have To Interrupt

Have you noticed how interruptions can come along so unexpectedly?

You can be in the middle of a conversation and your child comes up to you, grabbing at your pant leg, seeming to need your immediate attention … and you didn’t even see him coming.

People interrupt us all the time. They step into a conversation as they pass by; they pop their head in your office while you are on the phone.

You can even be telling a story, and when you take a breath, someone interrupts and begins to tell their related story … interrupted again!

Life can get interrupted too … like last fall when I was driving in the dark and out of nowhere a deer crossed my path and crumpled the front corner of my car.

That little interruption cost us a week without a car and the expense of having to buy a new one. (You can read about that here.)

The other day a grapefruit interrupted my life.

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been doing great physically. I’ve lost some weight; I’m feeling good; I have more energy.

Playing sports has never been more enjoyable. I couldn’t be happier in that department.

But the other day, I bent down to get a grapefruit out of the fridge and, BAM – I put my back out.

No, the grapefruit wasn’t 250 pounds, and it wasn’t a fake one made out of cement either.

It was just a grapefruit; I eat one every day.

I must have twisted a little when I bent down and aggravated an old injury.

Several years ago I pulled something in my lower back and since then, every once in a while, I injure it by doing something very simple … like an ordinary daily action.

I’d been mountain biking, building trails, and no problem. I played hockey all winter and nothing. It was a grapefruit this time that tripped me up.

And for the last three days, I’ve had to be very careful how I sit, what I sit on, and how I stand.

It’s been a real interruption.

Other times this has happened, I’ve ended up flat on my back on the floor for a day or two. This time it wasn’t that bad.

The worse part was I thought the back injury would interrupt my exercising streak. … I have exercised for 198 days in a row and I was afraid my streak was over.

It was really disappointing. I kind of moped around most of the day.

It wasn’t until later in the afternoon that I got a phone call from my son. We chatted about a bunch of things, and then I told him about my back and my exercising streak.

Then he interrupted my interruption.

He said, “Why don’t you just ride your bike on the streets, and go for an easy ride? Or take a slow walk?”

With that inspiration, I decided to see if I could get on my bike. And what do you know, one of the most comfortable positions for me is bent forward a little on my bike.

What was going to be a major interruption to my exercising, ended up being a little interruption to my comfort, but not to my life.

Here’s the thing: When you get interrupted in life, don’t take the interruption at face value. You have a God who can turn an interruption in life into a change of direction, into a better circumstance, or into something that has way less impact than you thought it would.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has caused an interruption in your life? Leave your comments below.