Interruption and Opportunity

I awakened early yesterday morning to take my wife Cindy to BWI to catch a flight to Indiana for her high school reunion. As we were leaving the house at 4:30 a.m., I glanced at my phone to check email and saw that Delta Airlines had emailed at 1:23 a.m. to let us know that Cindy's connecting flight had been canceled. It's a bit disconcerting when walking out the door to find that arrangements for your ultimate destination might be in question. After some frustrating moments on the phone with the airline's automated system, we finally decided to go into the terminal and speak with a living, breathing human being. With appropriate encouragement, the agent found an acceptable connecting flight and Cindy was on her way.

Life changes in a moment. Cancellations, postponements, revisions, adjustments...these are all a part of the journey we experience. They sometimes wreak havoc with our schedules and our perceptions of what is fair and what is not. Occasionally we have control in these moments, but often, not.

I heard someone say recently that God is at work in the interruptions of life. In the middle of the uncertainty about destination and outcome, one wonders about God's hand. This is not to say that God pre-ordains these interruptions, but that in the midst of them, God can work to teach valuable lessons, and to empower thought and action that enable decision making in the midst of the moment.

In the case of our early morning "interruption," there was nothing we could have done to prevent it, nor was there anything that we could have done after being made aware of it to fix it. What we were able to do, however, was not to panic, not to succumb to the frustration, but to resolutely and calmly find an appropriate resolution. Every interruption is not so easily managed, and certainly there are other interruptions more significant in nature. The Psalmist's response to his "interruptions," gives us a good word for today..."Why are you downcast, o my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, My Savior and my God," (42:5) The interruption presents an opportunity for God to work, and for you to seek God in the midst of whatever is going on around you. The little word "yet" tells the story...there is still hope.

Jim Abernathy