Interruptions

by Sandra Perry
Published March 11, 2005

We interrupt this life for a major announcement…

It’s the phone call in the wee hours of the morning. It’s the bad news you felt coming, but didn’t want to hear. It’s the stuff that makes the hustle and bustle of everyday life come to a screeching halt. It could be a death, an illness, an injury, a job loss. The list is extensive, but the results are the same. It’s like someone has pushed the pause button in our life freezing the ordinary in time. Well-meaning souls have theorized that God doesn’t give us any more than we can bear. So why do the interruptions of life seem to crush us?

Change is unfortunately a fact of life. Circumstances change. People leave us. People fail us. Our loved ones die. Some of these things have clear-cut explanations. Most of them do not. The comforting part? God is the constant. He promises never to leave or forsake us. Jesus reminds us that while there will be trouble in this world, we can rejoice in the fact that he’s overcome the world. The same one who was present at the foundation of the world will still be there when it all comes to an end.

Fact is, even if we understood everything that happened in our lives, stuff would still be hard. Having knowledge of how a single bad circumstance in our lives fits into the cosmos as a whole doesn’t make our pain any less. The problem with pain is that it hurts, not that we don’t always understand it. If the choice was between understanding my pain and having that pain stop, I pick stop any day of the week.

Frankly, we just aren’t designed to bear anything… at least not by ourselves. Jesus tells us his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Why? Because he’s helping to pull the load. Actually, he’s pulling the load. We’re just along for the ride.

If there was anyone who understood the meaning of pain and suffering, it was Paul. During different times of his ministry, Paul was ridiculed, heckled, shipwrecked, and even stoned and left for dead. Did it hurt? Yes. Did it keep Paul from moving on and trusting in God? No. In II Corinthians 4:8-9 he writes, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” Paul understood that whatever pain or suffering this life may heave upon him, it was only a temporary situation.

Even though we feel like the world has come to a screeching halt, it really hasn’t. Life moves on with or without us. The hope is that we don’t have to go it alone. In Christ, we have a sure foundation to move on, no matter what our circumstances or interruptions.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled life already in progress…

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