Friday, September 7, 2012

Divine Interruptions

I'm currently spending the majority of my time studying for my upcoming qualifying exams, and I appreciate any and all prayers for me in this challenging stage.  Pray for me to stay close to God, where I am at peace, and to trust Him in each and every moment of every day.  He is being faithful, and I'm sure I will share more on this subject at some point.  For now I want to describe a cool adventure God led me through on Sunday.

It all started with an awesome sermon in the morning.  Here's some of what I heard:

Feeding of 5,000
The disciples were coming off an intense time of ministry, where they went without a cloak, stayed in other people's homes, etc.  They were ready for some R&R with Jesus, who was planning on it as well.  But when crowds followed, Jesus welcomed them.  The disciples were tired and didn't want to deal with it... But that's where God stepped in with a divine intervention.

"God's divine intervention for someone may be a divine interruption for you and your plans."

(From http://youtu.be/fC3FLqDgWRE)
Interruptions sounded like a frustrating and scary thing, especially since I am in a season of trying to focus!  But as we took Communion, I offered myself to God for His will above my own.  I knew it could entail things I didn't want, like getting distracted from studying, not passing my quals, and so on; but it also felt like my best bet.  So (even though I continually have to do this), I gave it all to Him… all the fish and bread I had to offer.

I didn't expect Him to respond so quickly.

After the service, my friend Terry was showing a young couple around the church and I was tagging along.  As we moved to the sanctuary, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a woman on a bench drop her binder.  Normally I'd try to ignore such an event to lessen the embarrassment the person must be feeling, but the woman did not seem to be quite right… she was somehow unfocused/too stiff, and not immediately diving for the binder and scattered papers.  Without a chance to think about it, I stopped down and began to gather the loose papers. 
This is where it gets cool.

The woman responded, "Oh goodness, thank you so much.  I was sitting here not knowing what to do, and praying, 'Dear Jesus, help me!' and all of a sudden you're here picking up my papers!"

I didn't even have a response, so I just kept picking up papers.  Terry and her friend asked the woman if she's okay and found out she was hypoglycemic and having an attack!  They offered to find her food, and she was able to find some in her purse.  She stabilized, and so I handed her the disordered binder.  She again thanked me and introduced herself, Robin.  I introduced myself and then we were separated as I continued the tour with Terry and her new friend.  But Robin and I will both remember that interruption.

I then had a lovely afternoon with friends from church, Terry and Rob, as they welcomed me into their home and showed me their beautiful farm… we picked apples, sat in the sunshine, ate amazing food, rode a HUGE rope swing, and enjoyed each others company.  It was a great interruption to my normal studying schedule, a real Sabbath.

I left with a big bag of apples and pears, a box of eggs, the first Indian corn of the season, and a happy heart!  I also left a bit later than planned, which meant I had to forgo cooking my planned side dish for the potluck and find a plan B.



I made it to Safeway not even 10 minutes before the potluck started (across town, mind you).  My plan was to grab some hummus and pita chips but I failed to find either and quickly gave up, resorting to a bag of cookies.  I skipped the self-checkout line (which always seems to take longer than it should) and instead headed to the Express Lane, where I recognized the friendly checker.  Seeing my single item, a woman with a big cart allowed me to go in front of her, which I gratefully accepted.  There was just one person in front of me, who was in the process of checking out.  I carefully prepared everything I needed for the checkout to go smoothly and efficiently.  But I started to notice the woman in front of me was not smoothly finishing.  She seemed a bit concerned about the price and wasn't getting her club card to work.  The cashier was very patient and eventually got the discount applied: "That'll be $22.77, miss."
Woman: "What? The price tag said 18.93, I'm sure of it!"
Checker: "Well miss, the only way to check that is if we go look ourselves..."
Woman: "I only have this $20 bill… see, I don't have any pockets, my mom just gave me this!"

All the while I am not getting to my said potluck, so with initially rather selfish motives, I found myself looking in my wallet.  There in my wallet, I had exact change for $2.77.  So I carefully gathered it and offered it to the woman.

She was shocked: "Oh no, you don't need to do that!" ("It's okay, it's just two bucks") "Gosh, I feel like a homeless person.  I'm not a homeless person, really!"

I assured her that I knew she wasn't a homeless person, and the checker also encouraged her to accept the money, so eventually she did.  She then turned to me and said:

"Thank you so much… my family is in a rough time right now, a relative just died and so we're trying to have some family time together, but my mom's out in the car having a breakdown, and I know this will help her."

Wow. I no longer cared about being late to the potluck… I was so honored to get to play a part in this story, and to play a part even though my heart wasn't in the right place at first.  It was as though God spent the day showing off!  Or, more accurately, revealing Himself and His heart for others to me.  I want to keep that perspective in mind each and every day, so that I can see the needs around me and allow for interruptions...


P.S. An interesting side note is the idea of need.  The woman at Safeway really did not want to be seen as "in need."  And it's so rare that anyone would get an opportunity to help someone that way.  It's hard to admit that we aren't completely self-sufficient and to then accept the help of others… it's certainly humbling.  I suppose this is something for me to remember when I am in a place of needing help from others!