Well, welcome back this week to another podcast of Struggling Well, and it always is fun for us to gather at our kitchen table with our producer Tim Briggs. Thank you, Suzi. And good morning to you. And
good morning to you.
I think you have some thoughts as we get started this week that you wanted to share with us.
Yeah. Before I get into that, I just want you all to know that as we do these podcasts, we take this really seriously and yet we have a lot of fun with them. But it's also a responsibility that we feel that we're not just on the air in your home, in your as you walk or drive that we're not just, you know, talking away about nothing, but we want to give you things that are substantial things for you to think about. our prayer is that the spirit of God would work in your heart and move you. Whatever we say that is, you know, vain, that would go away. But anything that we say that is 100% from the spirit, we want it to percolate in your hearts. So, I want to share with you something that's been percolating in my heart and that is the idea of interruptions. you know, I think we all have a plan and a path, excuse me, that we see ahead of us. you when you're young, you have this plan that you're going to, you know, go through high school and go to the college of your choice and get the job of your dreams and perhaps meet the spouse of your dreams and have kids, maybe not have kids, but you know, acquire things that you have kind of a path. And so, especially for kids when they go to college, they're asked to choose a path, I think, really early in life. At 18, I barely knew my elbow from my knee, but I was supposed to choose the path for my life. So, what we do is we make these choices and we make them continuously in our lives. once you have children, you begin to develop a path or a plan for their life, how you think they should be or what you think they should do. But if we're honest, as we are planning and moving in a direction, the thing that can throw us completely off are interruptions. there's interruption that comes when we're having a conversation. y'all have experienced that, I would imagine, with children. You're talking to another adult and your kid is yanking on your pant leg or your skirt and saying, "Mommy, mommy," or "Daddy, daddy." That interruption and you're you feel irritated like, "Just wait a minute. I'm I've got this plan. man, I'm talking to this adult. Well, on a much larger scale, there are interruptions that occur in our life. And it honestly, as I'm saying the word for the 400th time, I think it's almost a It doesn't sound strong enough. Jimmy, what do you think? Is it a It feels like a benign word. Is it?
No.
Or no?
No.
How do you like interruptions?
I don't.
Well, let me jump in here. And that was a little interruption joke.
There you go. No, I think interruptions are seen as inconveniences. They're seen as not necessarily positive things.
Right. Right. That's the truth. so I was looking at scripture and wanting to see where perhaps one of the characters in scripture might have felt interrupted or how God may have interrupted their path. And I came up with a couple in the Old Testament. U Joseph We know the story of Joseph. We know how he was this favored son, had the coat of many colors, had these very jealous brothers who were not very nice to him. And in the and along the way, Joseph's life was interrupted because the brothers were like, "This guy is like the favored kid. We need to get rid of him. He's going to inherit everything. let's get him. Let's get rid of him." So, I think they put him in a well. Is that the first thing? Maybe
they put him in a pit.
In a pit. Okay.
Sold him into slavery.
Yeah. I mean, this kid had a an interrupted path. you know, they he's on this path as the favored son and it totally 100% gets interrupted. And when we read the story, we can look at what the brothers did and think, man, that was terrible. They not they did harm to him and they interrupted his life in a terrible, terrible way. but what I love is in chapter Genesis 45 7-8. Joseph takes what was an interruption and this is what he says. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here but God. Cuz remember at the end the brothers are starving. There's a famine. They come to Joseph. Don't know who he is. He can give them all this grain, all this food. And so what looked like terrible interruption that God allowed and that the brothers in their evil intent put in. He says at the end, it wasn't you who sent me here, it was God. So that interruption was redeemed by God, but God allowed that to happen. the second one in the Old Testament that I think is interesting is Moses. Again, here's Moses. He's born of a Jewish mother. and she knows that she can't raise him. I think were they killing the
I don't want to get my stories wrong. And so she puts him in a basket. We know this story. The Pharaoh's daughter sees him, wants to raise him. so he too is living this plush life. but he knows who he is and he knows where he comes from. And when he sees his people, the people that he identifies with, he tries to rescue them. And that first attempt does not go well. And So his plan to rescue them gets interrupted and they're he reject he's rejected by them. So then he flees to Midian and he's there a long time but he settles down. He's got a nice life. I mean nothing fancy but he's hurting sheep maybe goats. I don't know what. And he's married by now.
Yes.
Yes. And that's an interruption period in life because I don't Anyway, let's move on. So he goes to Midian and then he's just doing his thing and all of a sudden there's this burning bush and the bush is speaking to him. Now, that's another interruption. But we know that interruption was 100% from God to get him to move to then become a leader of people and take them to the promised land. Now, his life from the bush to the promised land to leading the people to the promised land was one interruption. after another. And in those interruptions, there were times when he was angry at God and angry at the people. But God had a plan, a large plan over that. In the New Testament, we have when Jesus chooses his disciples, I think there's a case there for lives that were interrupted. our dog right now is chasing I think what? Squirrel.
A squirrel. A squirrel. Cuz we're in our Studio A, which overlooks the courtyard. Anyway, that was an interruption, babe. I couldn't help it. You should see what I'm seeing. Two men sitting across from me laughing and going, "Oh my gosh, here she goes again." Anyway, so he chooses his disciples and they all had a life. They all had a plan for their lives. Matthew was a tax collector, and while his fellow Jews looked down on him, he was making money. And then Jesus comes along and interrupts that. And it's not like Matthew became this wealthy magnet of business. His life was completely 100% interrupted. And then there's others all throughout the Old and New Testament. But where do I want to go? It feels like you're not in here, Jimmy. And I know you are. So, anytime you want to jump in.
Well, I am. You're just You're doing a great job. You are this morning. You're doing a great job. And
so, I think where you want to go next, I want to hear what you have to say.
Okay. Isn't that sweet. He's so sweet. Okay, so I'm going to go back to the Old Testament. I know I'm jumping around today, but I can't get this thought out of my head that there's a lot of things in life that take us off course. And if we do not believe that God is sovereign and in control and the one who has the final word on everything, then we're going to despair all the time. And for whatever reason, I was led to look in the book of Habach and There's I mean we could do a whole thing on Habach. It's so excellent. But Habach I mean things are not good. he's waiting for God. He's waiting for God to answer him. and he says in chapter 2, I'm going to take my stand on the watch post and I'm going to wait and see what he will say to me. But here's the verse that I love. the Lord answers him and tells him to write down what he's about to tell him, the vision that he's going to show him. and that there's an appointed time for this vision to come to fruition. But he says, I love this, if it seems slow, wait for it, it will surely come. It will not delay. So, how does that fit with interruptions? When our lives seem like they get way off track, either some catastrophic event happens or the plans that we had blow up in smoke, it's easy to despair. But I think what we can learn from all the characters in scripture, Joseph, Moses, the disciples, the that were the apostles, even Jarius as his daughter is ill and wondering why Jesus isn't moving along and healing his daughter. What can we learn from that? and I and I'm thinking that what God is trying to say to me in the interruptions of our last four or five years is wait. Just wait. and see what I'm going to do. And waiting is not exactly my strong suit and probably not yours either.
Yeah. I think you go back to what you said in the beginning that we have a path, we have a plan for our lives. and what that assumes is we're in control. And the reality is we're not in control. And that path and that plan gets interrupted. God has got a path and a plan for our lives that's far bigger. And we have to be willing to trust that path and that plan and see the interruption as something that maybe well, we can't see ahead, but he can. And
and that's the thing that has really gotten me in the last few weeks in particular is I think that my plan if somebody would choose the way I probably have the best plan you can imagine because that's what I think.
Well, that's what I think a lot of us think.
But then what happens is when that path isn't chosen or isn't taken, then I find myself throwing my hands up like, "God, what now? What's going to happen?" Without thinking, I turn it upside down. Like, what I'm saying is, "My plan is the plan." And God, you flipped it over. You've interrupted this plan. Now, what are you going to do? As if he hadn't been thinking and planning and having his sovereign will in place to begin with. It's kind of an arrogant thing, but it's also like can I trust him? And we use that word so much. But can I see that what I think is the way? Can I lean into the know your way is the way?
Right. So as we leave you this week, our thought is next time your life gets interrupted, maybe in a big way, maybe in a small way, is it possible that you can see beyond the interruption to what God is doing and working? And it may take time to see that. Have a good week.