My eye trouble was not on my schedule for 2015. Nope.
Vision problems started in December and life won’t get back to normal (Lord, please! Restored vision!) until approximately August.
I had a plan! I had projects I wanted to finish this year and I had hoped to spend time promoting my book. (When Storms Come: Will You be Ready? is due out in June.) Scrapped!
But, who owns my time?
When I was working, interruptions were something to manage, but not eliminate. I blocked out time for focused effort, and disciplined myself to check email less frequently. Each interruption required effort to refocus on my task. And yet, some of the interruptions were actually wonderful opportunities. I was, no doubt, poorer and less useful for not better discerning whether it was an interruption or opportunity.
Jesus’ life was one interruption after another, yet He completed the work the Father gave Him to do. Each interruption recorded in the gospels gives us another glimpse into who Jesus is, and, therefore, who the Father is.
We are told to “make the most of our time.” (Ephesians 5:16) I want to be a good servant and accomplish what He has for me to do, so it’s important to plan, praying for guidance, in order to reach my goals. But if I get stuck on my precious plans, like Martha I miss the best of what He has for me. (Luke 10:38-42)
Because of my eye trouble, I am seeing many people I would not otherwise have met.
Lord, help me be sensitive to opportunities You give me to show Your love and power.
I will continue to plan because I believe that is the path to accomplish what the Lord gives me. But I am taking Corrie ten Boom’s comment seriously. She said she “learned to hold everything loosely, because otherwise it hurt too much when the Father pried it from her hands.”
How about you? Have your plans been disrupted? What are you going to do?
