Disruption

6 For hardship does not spring from the soil, nor does trouble sprout from the ground. 7 Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upwards. (Job 5)

Most of us can agree with the end of the Bible verse above. Trouble will certainly come into everyone’s life.

There is a story of an old priest trying to work in the vestry at Church sorting out rotas, and managing registers, but just has he got something into his head, a visitor would come in the church and ask him something, which he would help with. By the time he got back to the vestry it had gone out of his head, and he would start again trying to remember where he was up to and what would be the best way to organise the papers. He was disrupted several times that day and ended up getting very little done. In his prayers later, he confessed to God how he had failed to do so much of the work he had intended for that day. But as he waited for God’s response, he felt firmly that the message from God was that all those interruptions were the work that God had in mind for him to do that day – and that he could do his own work another time.

I suppose I am the sort of person who likes to plan out the day and have a good idea where I am going. But we believe in a God who likes to be a part of our day – which will not always mean going along with our plans.

During Lent we seek to prepare ourselves to be members of God’s family and to follow His ways more closely. There will be Lent Lunches in some Churches, and an Alpha course in Mayfield as well as the various small groups where people can explore their faith.

But God will always have people we have not thought of, who were not part of our plan, but He wants us to get to know them and to help out where we can.

Many of the stories in the Bible tell us of Jesus doing great things, and yet He is interrupted. Once he went to heal the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5 and Luke 8). And yet on the way they are interrupted by a woman who wants healing. Jesus takes it in His stride and heals the woman and then later the little girl is raised from death.

How do you take being interrupted – can you work out which times it is actually God breaking into your day, helping you to take a step of faith?

One of the advances in teaching from when I was at school is that nowadays the teacher is actively looking out for the student who is getting lost, raising their hand to ask for clarification. The idea is that the flow of teaching is usefully broken by a lost student asking a question, rather than by carrying on until the end, by which point the lost one (and there may be many lost) can’t see their way through the logic of the lesson.

If you have a belief in God, then you should expect God to break into your day. So, feel free to have conversations with Him, pray while walking, make your decisions before the Lord. God loves us to interrupt Him too – He is never too busy to hear our concerns or offer guidance or healing or peace.

Interruptions don’t work so well in Church unless it’s from God. That’s why we have several small groups which Christians are encouraged to join. Then you can interrupt the discussion, ask your question, and go deeper into why our faith holds together so well in theory and in practice. If you’re in a group, I encourage you to continue going. If not – why not think about the new Alpha starting in Mayfield which you don’t have to join at the beginning – it is put together to allow people to join as it runs.

Let me finish with an interruption we have recently been celebrating

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’ (Luke 1)

Brian Leathers (February 2025)