I'm Interrupted

Between the Roots has me thinking a lot about interruptions. Interruptions can be frustrating. They step into the middle of what I am doing, change my direction, and delay whatever I had planned next. But I am learning that interruptions are not always interruptions. Sometimes what feels like someone stepping into the middle of my plans is actually God putting something into place. I may think I am being delayed, redirected, or pulled away from what I am supposed to be doing. Then, a little later, I discover that the interruption was the very thing that prepared me for what came next. That Sunday seemed to be built out of moments like that. The message during the nine o’clock service came from Luke 11. Jesus taught His disciples about prayer—how to pray, how to persist, and how to trust that our Father hears us. It is easy to think of prayer as something that happens between us and God. We speak, He listens, and then we wait for an answer. But sometimes the answer is already moving through the people around us. After the message, I noticed a man who looked like he might need prayer. I was about to get up and go over to him when another man stopped me and asked me to pray with him. I prayed with him first. During our conversation, I learned about a recovery group for people struggling with addiction. I got the information from him, and when we finished, I went over to the man I had originally noticed. It turned out that he needed exactly the information I had just received. If I had reached him without being interrupted, I would not have had what he needed. The interruption did not prevent me from helping him. It prepared me to help him. One man came looking for prayer and became part of the answer for someone else without even knowing it. Then came the eleven o’clock service. Afterward, I was about to collect the camera batteries and put everything away. As I looked toward the balcony, I noticed a man who appeared to be waiting for someone. Before I could do anything, a woman stopped me to talk about supporting the soup run. Another interruption. When our conversation ended, I saw the man in the balcony get up and begin walking away. I thought I had missed the opportunity to speak with him. I started collecting a battery from one of the cameras, but when I looked again, I saw that he had taken another seat. He was looking around as though he was trying to see whether anyone was free. The cameras could wait. I went over to him. He told me about his anxiety, his pain, and his frustration. He had recently gotten out of treatment and was struggling with addiction. He felt that God had never given him a sign that he was doing the right thing. The longer we talked, the more I realized there were deeper things happening than I could help him with by myself. He needed prayer, but he also needed someone equipped to help him work through everything he was carrying. Dave was just about to leave, but I called him over. Dave spoke with him and gave him information about Soul Care. Now he had somewhere he could continue working through those deeper struggles with someone able to walk beside him. After Dave left, I mentioned the recovery group I had learned about that morning. Then the first man—the one who had interrupted me after the nine o’clock service—came back. Once again, the right person appeared at the right moment. Before Dave came over, I had told the man from the balcony that sometimes unanswered prayer feels like silence. It can seem as though God has forgotten us or is ignoring us, but He is still working. Sometimes the answer is waiting because someone else is still being prepared to become part of it. God is with us in every moment. Faith does not mean everything suddenly becomes easy. It means trusting that He is there and relying on His strength to carry us through what we cannot carry alone. I never told the man that our meeting was a sign from God. I will let him discover that for himself. Maybe while going through Soul Care, he will look back at that Sunday. He may remember sitting alone in the balcony, getting up to leave, and then deciding to sit down one more time. Perhaps he will realize that while he was looking around to see whether anyone was free, God had already delayed someone nearby long enough to notice him. Luke 11:1–14 teaches us to ask, seek, knock, and trust the Father who hears us. That Sunday showed me that an answer to prayer does not always arrive in the way we expect. Sometimes it comes through a person carrying information we do not yet know we need. Sometimes it looks like a conversation that delays us for a few minutes. Sometimes it is simply being given another chance to notice someone before he walks away. The Interruptions Between the Roots Sometimes I am the answer to someone else’s prayer. Sometimes they are the answer to mine. I thought I was being interrupted, but each interruption was putting something in place for what came next. The first gave me information I did not yet know I needed. The second kept me there long enough to look again. Neither interruption pulled me away from what God was doing. They placed me exactly where I needed to be. Sometimes we do not recognize what God is arranging while it is happening. We only see it later, when we look back and discover how every interruption connected. That is what I found growing Between the Roots.