Interruptions

Someone posted this on the widow/widowers website today and I really liked it so I thought I would share...

We have tremendously high expectations at Christmas. We want everything to be perfect. But often it is not that way. It is supposed to be, as the song says, "the most wonderful time of the year" and the "hap-happiest season of all." But for many it will be a very difficult time because something has interrupted the joy. It may be one of many things including a sickness, or death, or divorce, or loneliness or just a feeling of depression and no idea of what the coming year may hold for us.

We look to the Christmas season to be a time of perfect peace, harmony, and joy. But the first Christmas was not that way. It was in some way -an interruption.

Interruptions can happen at any good time. Consider the timing of Joseph and Mary's interruption. They were engaged to be married. Like Christmas, an engagement is supposed to be a wonderous time. But it was during this time that an angel appeared to Mary and told her that she would miraculously, as a virgin, conceive and give birth to the Son of God. What joyful news! Yet, what an interruption! How would she explain her pregnancy to Joseph? Would he believe her? Would he be willing to take on that responsibility? This was not in their plans. And yet, she accepted it.

We know how Joseph responded. He didn't believe her. How could he? His plans for a happy home with the woman he loved were dashed before his eyes. His life, as well as hers, had been powerfully interrupted.

If we are not careful, our response to an interruption can send us down the wrong path. Joseph nearly went down the wrong path. When he discovered Mary's pregnancy, he was devastated. He couldn't buy her story about a virgin conception. As much as he loved her and wanted to be with her, there was nothing to do but divorce her.

An ancient engagement was much more binding than today's engagements. The only way out of one was divorce. In fact, Joseph had the right to have her stoned to death for infidelity. Yet because he was a good man, he did not want to harm her or even embarrass her. He would divorce her privately. This was Joseph's human response to a powerful interruption. But what a mistake it would have been.

Often an interruption brings on a knee-jerk reaction. We make decisions that, if we were better informed, we would not make. We must be careful that when we face an interruption, we don't just react according to our own fears and feelings.

The key to handling an interruption is to get God's take on it. Thankfully, God rescued Joseph from his error. I can imagine Joseph, having learned of Mary's situation, tossing and turning in bed, trying to decide what to do. But while he is sleeping an angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream and says,

"Joseph, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife. What she says is true. She will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. This is in fulfillment of what God said through Isaiah the prophet, 'The virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son, and He shall be called Immanuel meaning 'God with us.'"

Joseph awoke with a changed mind. He would not divorce Mary. He would take her as his wife and help raise this miraculous child. He had gotten God's perspective of his interruption.

When you encounter an interruption, whatever it may be, don't react according to your own feelings and thoughts. Seek God's direction. Remember Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding Further, we are to think about Him in all our ways, and He will guide us in the right direction.

Here are three things to remember when you encounter an interruption.

1. Prayer

The first thing to do when your life is interrupted is stop and pray. Pray for guidance. Pray for courage. Pray for help. When you look to God He will help you. He loves you and the more we knock the more he listens.

2. Perspective

Put the interruption in the proper perspective. How bad is it really? How long will it actually be important? What difference will it make in eternity? Remember to see things through Gods eyes and through the lens of eternal destiny.

3. God is in Control

Keep in mind that God is still in control of your life. He knows us and has a plan for us. Remember- He has all of the hairs on your head numbered and he knows you better than anyone else. In fact he is ever ready to direct you as you keep perspective, and offer prayers.

Interruptions can at times positively redirect our lives. This was true of Joseph and Mary. Their plans were interrupted, but oh what an interruption. Can you imagine a more wonderful privilege, or a more challenging responsibility, than to be the human parents of the Son of God? The direction their future took was not what they had planned, but it was so much better.

Have you ever considered that God could do that kind of thing in your life? Not that you would be made the parents of the Son of God, but that God would take what seems to be an interruption, an unforeseen problem, and use it to set your life on a new and better path.

Whatever interruption you may be enduring right now, why not look at it in a different light, and ask, "Heavenly Father, are you using this to do something great in my life?" Then begin to look for the marvelous things He will do. I know that what I am doing with my interruptions and I believe turn the interruption into something so much better.

Whatever interruption you may be experiencing this Christmas, there is one thing you can do: stop and give thanks to heavenly Father for the birth, life and Atonement of Christ. And as you praise and thank the Lord, even in the midst of difficult circumstances, something of the peace that Jesus came to bring will be yours.

For unto us is born in the city of David-A Saviour. Were it not for the interruptions in life, no Saviors would be needed. I testify of the birth of Christ and the divine purpose of his birth was so that he could Atone for each of our Interruptions.

Merry Christmas and may you find peace in your interruptions!