“While visiting the University of Notre Dame, I met with an older professor and while we strolled he said with a certain melancholy, ‘you know, my whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered that my interruptions were my work.’” —Henri Nouwen in Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life (Image Books, 1975), p. 52.
This has been my experience. I have an agenda, but I am slowly, often painfully learning that God most often meets me in the interruptions in my life that are not on my agenda. There is that call from a friend or family member when I think I am too busy to talk. For me this is a sure sign that I am in trouble, losing priorities of what life is all about, if I cannot stop and talk. Interruptions are like a stop or yield sign to go off script, and listen for a grace note. Nouwen calls them opportunities, especially opportunities for hospitality and new experiences. When I come back to a project after an interruption, I usually have fresh ideas; but there is that false idea that keeps ever lurking and speaking in my ear that if I stop, I will lose my creativity or my train of thought.
Interruptions are also a reminder of how powerless we are. If we think we are in charge, the interruptions remind us that this is a myth. On the other hand, when I seal myself off and refuse to respond to anything but what is on my agenda, I become exponentially isolated. My world, my God become too small. I become the center of the universe and fossilized. I develop a high hubris titer.
Joanna joannaseibert.com