interruptions

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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.

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All Time Is Not Equal

We live in a world that tries to convince us that everyone and everything is equal. Don’t try to tell me that! It’s just not true … time isn’t even equal.

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Time is all measured out; we use it to be exact, to track things. But I’m beginning to believe that all time is not equal. For instance, we have 24 hours each day, and though every hour has 60 minutes in it, not all those hours are equal.

You can’t accomplish the same amount in every given 60 minute period of a day. You can’t even equally enjoy each 60 minute time frame in a day … nor can you control what will take place in any hour.

So when you complain that you’re short on time, and someone says we all have the same amount of time, technically he may be correct, but his statement is rather cliche with very little thought behind it.

This week I was in Toronto for a conference. One night we went to the Blue Jays baseball game. At 5 pm it took us over an hour to get down to the ball park. After the game, and a few more hours spent downtown, the trip back only took us 25 minutes. The difference was mostly traffic.

You naturally have more energy in some hours than others. You can have more interruptions at certain times or a deadline to meet before you can take a break and relax. … I don’t want to be trying do something that requires a lot of thinking when my energy is low or when there is a great chance of interruptions.

The other day I tried to plan accordingly. My intention was to write my blog early on Monday morning, but I had stayed up late the night before and didn’t get up as early as I had hoped to.

I had a short window in which to write my blog because I also had to phone to make an appointment to take our car to our mechanic. When I called, he said he could take the car right then.

Because I got up late, I didn’t start writing my blog early enough and then had to leave it to take the car in. All this took place before 9 am – prime quiet time when I have good mental energy. I lost out because of a bad decision the night before and an appointment which was out of my control.

I never did get a blog written that Monday.

It takes some planning and strategy to coordinate your day into the hours that best suit the things you want and need to do.

You just can’t go into a day without a plan or you won’t be very productive. And if you string a few of those days together, you’ll feel like you will never get out from under the backlog you find yourself in.

Here’s the thing: If you are going to spend time with God you need to plan it. And you need to plan it for a time when you will be mentally alert and you won’t face interruptions. You can’t guarantee all that but you can plan for it. If God is important to you, then plan to spend time with Him when there is the greatest chance that you will be mentally and emotionally able to meet with Him, at a time when you won’t be interrupted by things, people, emails or phone calls.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What time of day are you at your best and least distracted? Leave your comment below.

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Choose Your Socks Wisely

They say you never know what a day will bring, but sometimes you can sense a day is going to have a certain theme to it. It would be nice if you could go to a drawer and, like picking out a pair of socks, pick your day’s mood (and, of course, check to make sure there’s no holes in it).

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Some people get up on the wrong side of the bed. Others roll out of bed the wrong way and voila, their day seems to be magically selected for them. Fortunately for me, I usually roll out of bed feeling good about what is ahead for me.

Unfortunately, that feeling doesn’t always last very long. The sock drawer effect happens and I pick out a day of frustration to wear like a ratty, old pair of sweat socks.

That happened to me recently. For the first hour or so (getting up, doing my devotions, showering and having breakfast) everything went well. Then I was informed that I needed to drive my wife somewhere on my way to work.

Sometimes it just takes a little rewriting of the daily script to initiate “a day of interruptions” theme. … Oh, and believe me, that did it! Driving Lily to her destination, I was a little agitated. It detained me from getting down to my planned work.

When I finally got to work, in walked an unplanned, unscheduled, perfect illustration for my “interruptions” day. The man was seeking help but each time he had come the previous week, he had been told to come back as I had been on vacation.

The last time he had been told to phone first before he came in. Instead, he just showed up. He was in need of some financial assistance and though I am not a money lender, as a pastor I am used to trying to help out people in his position.

He needed food and the solution was to get him a grocery store gift card. However, after being put off a few times already, he was not in a mood to be put off again.

As I listened to his story, my heart went out to him. Yes, it would be an interruption for me to stop what I was doing to go buy him a gift card, but I felt that’s what I should do.

Unfortunately, he had a few restrictions. He could not go to the grocery store that was the closest to the church. The next closest did not have a store near where he lived.

That meant this interruption would take even longer. Half way there I remembered I had taken my wallet out of my pocket and it was still on my desk at church, so I turned around and went back.

I got the wallet, drove back to the grocery store, and bought the gift card only to notice that the store was affiliated with a grocery store that was close to the church. I could have purchased the card there and saved half the time!

That’s how my day went, one thing after another … until I got home and changed my socks.

Here’s the thing: You can focus on the frustration of each day and get all agitated inside. OR you can view the events of the day as things God brings your way and deal with them as opportunities to serve Him. Your choice.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What is your biggest frustration?  Leave your comment below.