Interruptions
Interruptions are a part of my daily life here in Haiti. It is nearly impossible to sit down for a morning to plan ministry, have a meeting, meet with a teen for discipleship, eat lunch, lay in a hammock, or whatever I am doing on any given day, without being interrupted by someone who walks into the gates of our mission base and needs something. It may be a parent who wants to send their child to school, or someone who needs food, or medical help. Sometimes it is just someone who wants to talk or say hello.
While I know that this is a beautiful and necessary part of our mission, recently it has been very difficult for me. I often want to be able to finish whatever it is that I am working on. Sometimes I just want to be able to show the person in front of me that they are important, but someone else is hovering yards away, waiting to talk. Sometimes I just want to finish my lunch, or be free for a moment.
I have been realizing over the past month or so that sometimes these moments bring out the worst in me. It is easy to get frustrated when I have talked to three people in one morning, and another person may be waiting, while in the mean time I was hoping to plan out a ministry for later that afternoon. And even if I try not to let my frustration show, I know it impacts the people around me, and it impacts my whole attitude for the day. It is hard to meet Christ in the stranger, when I am thinking about my own plans.
I am starting to realize that God is giving me moments like this in order to seek Him and grow in my love for Him and His people. In every stranger, acquaintance, or friend who walks in and needs something, Jesus is waiting for me. That means that Jesus needs my patience. Jesus needs my kindness. He needs my heart and my compassion.
Sometimes my own selfishness is the only thing that really gets in the way of meeting Christ that day. Sometimes I am internally frustrated in a conversation and so I fail in loving the person that has come to “interrupt” my morning. And yet God is the one who plans out these meetings. As a missionary, I owe every person my time.
Pope Francis calls me out in his encyclical “The Joy of the Gospel”. He says, “At a time when we most need a missionary dynamism which will bring salt and light to the world, many lay people fear that they may be asked to undertake some apostolic work and they seek to avoid any responsibility that may take away from their free time.” Whoa, what an insight into the justified selfishness that we often live out as human beings. Thankfully, his solution to this is simple: “For all this, I repeat: Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of the joy of evangelization!”
Please pray for me to find again and again the joy of evangelization, to seek Him in the interruptions and meet Him in the face of those in need.
While I know that this is a beautiful and necessary part of our mission, recently it has been very difficult for me. I often want to be able to finish whatever it is that I am working on. Sometimes I just want to be able to show the person in front of me that they are important, but someone else is hovering yards away, waiting to talk. Sometimes I just want to finish my lunch, or be free for a moment.
I have been realizing over the past month or so that sometimes these moments bring out the worst in me. It is easy to get frustrated when I have talked to three people in one morning, and another person may be waiting, while in the mean time I was hoping to plan out a ministry for later that afternoon. And even if I try not to let my frustration show, I know it impacts the people around me, and it impacts my whole attitude for the day. It is hard to meet Christ in the stranger, when I am thinking about my own plans.
I am starting to realize that God is giving me moments like this in order to seek Him and grow in my love for Him and His people. In every stranger, acquaintance, or friend who walks in and needs something, Jesus is waiting for me. That means that Jesus needs my patience. Jesus needs my kindness. He needs my heart and my compassion.
Sometimes my own selfishness is the only thing that really gets in the way of meeting Christ that day. Sometimes I am internally frustrated in a conversation and so I fail in loving the person that has come to “interrupt” my morning. And yet God is the one who plans out these meetings. As a missionary, I owe every person my time.
Pope Francis calls me out in his encyclical “The Joy of the Gospel”. He says, “At a time when we most need a missionary dynamism which will bring salt and light to the world, many lay people fear that they may be asked to undertake some apostolic work and they seek to avoid any responsibility that may take away from their free time.” Whoa, what an insight into the justified selfishness that we often live out as human beings. Thankfully, his solution to this is simple: “For all this, I repeat: Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of the joy of evangelization!”
Please pray for me to find again and again the joy of evangelization, to seek Him in the interruptions and meet Him in the face of those in need.
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