{"id":17622,"date":"2023-02-27T04:58:16","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T10:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=17622"},"modified":"2023-02-27T04:58:21","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T10:58:21","slug":"being-willing-to-be-interrupted-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=17622","title":{"rendered":"Being Willing to be Interrupted"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s been a long, tiring day. You\u2019re almost to the end of it and you just want to chill \u2013 turn on the television to escape to another world. Aw! It feels so good to get off your feet when \u2014 just like that \u2014 the phone rings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The caller ID tells you that it\u2019s that one friend who always seems to have a pressing issue. Do you answer the phone? Or do you let it go to voicemail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There may be good reasons to disregard the call. It may be that you need to be able to clear your mind and you had reserved this time for quiet prayer and meditation. You just want to steal away with Jesus. After all, who should take priority over Him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think you know where I\u2019m going with this. If we purpose to follow Jesus\u2019 lead, we\u2019ll say a quick prayer — and take the call. Isn\u2019t that what Jesus did? \u201cWhen Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So He began teaching them many things.\u201d (Mark 6:34)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He was always allowing needy people to interrupt His plans. Jesus\u2019 plan had been for the disciples to rest after returning from their preaching mission. He wanted them to get away from the crowds and recharge. But when he saw the crowd awaiting them on the shore, \u201cHe had compassion on them\u201d and He changed plans. His \u201ctime off\u201d became an opportunity to teach the crowd. And every time — there were miracles that took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth is \u2013 we are little Jesuses if His light shines brightly in us. First, we read that, “He is the light of the world” (John 8:12), but He boomeranged that back at us when He said, “You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Jesus, we should all get in the habit of choosing compassion. Like Jesus, we should be open to the possibility that some-thing or some-one will come along and disrupt our plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus’ example for us is to stay flexible and open to the Holy Spirit, no matter what we have planned or scheduled for any day. It\u2019s this openness of heart that allowed Jesus to feed the five thousand on His day off, and it\u2019s the same openness that will make us more available to the people around us who need our attention and care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all make plans. Our lives are busy, and we often feel annoyed by interruptions. But Jesus wasn\u2019t annoyed. \u201cHis heart was moved\u201d with compassion. Our plans should always take second place to God’s plans. It can be tempting to deflect interruptions or brush people aside because we want to guard our private time or finish our to-do list. If we do that, we could end up missing an opportunity to make a difference in someone\u2019s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So go ahead. Make your plans! Just don\u2019t be surprised when God interrupts you with an invitation to love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHoly Spirit, move our hearts with Jesus\u2019 compassion so that we can respond with love at any moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a long, tiring day. You\u2019re almost to the end of it and you just want to chill \u2013 turn on the television to escape to another world. Aw! It feels so good to get off your feet when \u2014 just like that \u2014 the phone rings. The caller ID tells you that it\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26009,26008,26007,26010],"tags":[1210,26003,6141,26005,1769,2212,40,16457,3615,723,132,16461,26004,26006],"class_list":["post-17622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-be-jesus","category-compassion","category-interrupted","category-stay-flexible","tag-blog","tag-caller-id","tag-change-of-plans","tag-choose-compassion","tag-christian","tag-compassion","tag-inspiration","tag-interrupted","tag-interruption","tag-light-of-the-world","tag-love","tag-open-to-holy-spirit","tag-pressing-issue","tag-stay-flexible"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17633,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622\/revisions\/17633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}