Interruptions. We all know them. And we all hate them (unless of course we’re being interrupted in a task we don’t want to do, LOL). They are distractions. They are things that keep us from doing what we want to be doing, or what we should be doing. They are those annoying, frustrating moments that pull us out of our groove, throw a wrench in our works, or otherwise discombobulate us.

Interruptions are life’s hiccups. And we ALL know how annoying hiccups can be!

Back in September, one of my devotional readings from Live in Grace, Walk in Love by Bob Goff was all about interruptions. I read it while I was away on a writing retreat–one of the few times of uninterrupted writing I manage in a year–so I was especially aware of how far I will go to avoid those dratted interruptions. When I returned from my retreat, I took the time to muse about this topic to the #BeBetter group, and it was something we could all agree with. A few days later, my life was seriously interrupted by a 5-day hospital trip and diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes for my son.

For the next few months, I was left feeling like all I had left were interruptions. My plans, derailed by health issues. My days, interrupted constantly by the need to check blood sugars. My sleep, thoroughly broken by the same. I’ve always loved uninterrupted spans of time in which I can just work. Just be. Just do what I feel I need to do. (Which makes it rather ironic that we chose to homeschool and have both of us working from home. Because lemme just tell you, there is no such thing as a day without many, many interruptions, LOL. As in, the interruptions even have interruptions, until I sit back down hours later and don’t even know what I’d originally been doing! Bet we can all commiserate with that too, right?)

But here’s the thing. Maybe…maybe we’re looking at it all wrong. That’s what Goff pointed out in the devotional, and it’s something I’ve been pondering for months since.

He points out that Jesus was met with constant interruptions too. He was on His way to help one person when He’s stopped by another. Or was on His way to the mountaintop for a much-needed retreat and refresher when He’s interrupted by crowds swarming Him. He was trying to enjoy a nice meal when someone came in to pour oil on His feet. His life was a life of constant interruptions too.

But how did He react?

Well, we don’t see Him complaining. We don’t see Him pushing the interruptions aside. We don’t see Him sighing and getting overwhelmed by frustration.

We see Him pausing. We see Him being constantly “moved by love” for those interruptions, those people so desparate to touch even the hem of their garment that they’d haunt Him through the streets. We see Him recognizing that every single interruption is its own appointment. Not just a distraction from what He was “supposed” to be doing–but a worthwhile task in itself.

Do we view our interruptions the same way?

I’m trying to do that, to view things in a new way.

That the phone call is an unexpected conversation, not an interruption.
The kid at my elbow is a chance to love on one of the most important people in my life, not a distraction.
The email that comes in, filled with demands and exclamation points, is a chance to serve someone in a moment of need, not just something taking me away from my to-do list.
That 2 a.m. blood sugar check is an act of love for my son and a chance to pray, not a half-hour of missing sleep.

What would change in our day if we started viewing each interruption as its own appointment, ordained by God? How much less frustrated would we be if we realized that our time is not our own, and so when our scheduled activity is forced to pause, we recognize it as God tapping us on the shoulder? What if we could seriously view each unexpected thing as a chance to serve Him by serving others and showing His love?

When that woman with the issue of blood touched the hem of His garment, the man who’d been taking Him to his house to heal His daughter no doubt called it a devastating interruption. But the woman called it a life-changing miracle. And Jesus called it another chance to show the love of the Father to a hurting heart. He still healed the little girl–brought her back from death, even. He performed a bigger miracle because of the interruption. And another besides.

We serve a God whose love is not divided by interruptions–it’s multiplied. So let’s rejoice in that assurance…and try to remember that each moment matters…whether it’s filled with what we’d planned or something else entirely.

In the book world, there’s a lot of talk about whether it’s worthwhile to give things away for free. People are of multiple mindsets on this. Some think it’s a great way to draw in new readers. Others think it devalues our work. What I know is this: when I get something for free–by which I mean the item simply has no cost assigned to it–very rarely do I actually read it. Why? Because I have so many things waiting to be read that I paid for, or to which a definite value was attached. For instance, one of the perks of being an author with the Baker Group is that we get to pick out a few books from the catalogue each time we’re in it. But we’re given a set value. So I know every title I pick means another that I don’t. There’s still value there. The same goes for if I get a coupon or store credit/cash. It’s a set value. Each item I buy with it means another I don’t. There’s still a cost.

And then there are gifts. They cost us nothing. But we know there’s value, right? We know that someone who cares about us paid something for that item, or invested time in the creation of it. When Judith from church gave me hand-knitted tea cozies for Christmas, it wasn’t just a matter of the ten dollars of yarn, it was a matter of the hours upon hours I knew very well it took her to create that. It has value. It has worth.

Then there’s salvation. It’s free…but it’s not just free. It’s a free gift–paid for by Jesus. And my friends, it’s COSTLY. So, so costly. He couldn’t just offer us salvation with no cost to himself, because then it wouldn’t have value. It wouldn’t satisfy the debt that was owed. He paid it. And then He gave it. Free to us, but certainly not free to Him.

We know this, obviously. We use all the right words when we talk about it. But so often…so often I feel like we toss it around like a free download without really thinking about the value. Or at the least, without putting that value above everything else. We talk about the price Jesus paid, but because it isn’t a cost to us, we offer that so freely and yet don’t give of our own resources unless it’s convenient. We stop giving before it hurts.

He gave until it killed Him.

As we enter the season of Lent, those forty days leading up to His sacrifice, will you join me in really contemplating the cost of this free gift? Let’s pause each day to enumerate the cost.

• Instead of a life of comfort, He chose the life of a wanderer
• Instead of the security of a family, He chose to find family among the people who needed Him so desperately
• Instead of making friends with the powerful, He brought the touch of Heaven to the weak
• Instead of using His authority to bring Himself riches, He gave up everything to suffer with the poor
• Instead of hoarding what He had to provide for Himself and His disciples, He took a little and multiplied it to feed the masses
• Instead of seeking a peaceful life that ended in an easy death at a ripe old age, He offered His life up for us in His prime

Life is the most sacred thing in this world. It is so much more valuable than anything we can purchase with money, isn’t it? Who among us wouldn’t trade everything we have if necessary to keep our child or our spouse or our parent alive? Let me just tell you, when your baby is struggling to draw breath and fighting for consciousness, you don’t care how much the helicopter costs, you just want him to get the help he needs. Life is sacred. Life is precious. Life is beyond price.

And that’s what Jesus gave for us. Everything. Absolutely everything. Let’s make sure we pause to really appreciate that this year.

Over the weekend, I had a dream that my kids were little again. That Rowyn was maybe 18 months, and he was crying from another room. I heard him so went to find him, and he looked up at me as he did in reality a million times, saw me, stretched up his arms, and just cried, “Mama!”

In my dream, I scooped him up on the move. I held him close. He stopped crying. But I was still moving, and I tripped. I felt myself going down in that slow-motion way of dreams. My only thought being to keep him from harm. So in typical dream physics, I twisted and bent and held him up and tried to force my mind to put me back on my feet. I couldn’t bear the thought of my baby hurting. I just wanted to make it better. Not be the cause of any more harm.

In reality, while I was dreaming this, we were having a blood sugar battle. The same amount of insulin that usually kept him on the low side of normal had done nothing that night, it seemed, and his numbers were way too high. So I was worrying, and it came out in my dreams. These dreams that were total wish-fulfillment–I just want to be able to make it all better!–and fears–because I can’t.

I woke up with the image of that adorable little boy still in my mind. That mama still in my heart. It didn’t take a degree is psychology to understand why I’d been dreaming about Rowyn as a toddler, when all it took to make the world right was a cuddle in mama’s arms.

Today my baby turns 13. He certainly doesn’t hold his arms up anymore and beg to be picked up, or cry out for mama in that way that says, If you just come, everything will be better. Today my baby turns 13, and I know that life will never be what it was on other birthdays, in other years. He can’t just grin and cut himself a piece of leftover cake for breakfast or eat a spoonful of extra icing for the fun of it. Every gram of carbs that go into his body must be counteracted with insulin. His life will never be what it was before…but it’s all the more precious for what we’ve gone through in these last four months.

As a mother, I’m keenly aware of all I can’t do for him. All I can’t control. All I can’t make better. But then I remember the lessons I would dwell on when he was a baby and a toddler, and I was so exhausted from those constant calls for mama. I remember falling asleep in our old wooden rocking chair, him cuddled in my lap, and realizing that this was how we should approach our Father in heaven. With that certainty that He can make everything right. And that even when He doesn’t change the situation, it’s okay because He has us in His arms.

Do we still have that perfect trust? The certainty of a toddler in his mother’s arms? That calm assurance that the storm doesn’t matter, as long as we can weather it with Him?

Do we cling to that child-like faith even as life wears us out and wears us down? Or do we stop lifting our arms? Stop calling out, “Abba!” the moment we sense something going wrong?

Children grow up. They become independent. They turn into young women and young men with dreams beyond the walls of their parents’ house. And I love watching that process. I love seeing who my babies are growing into. I don’t have to share all their dreams or even understand them. I don’t have to force my own dreams on them. I can just love them and commit them every day to God and trust that even when my arms aren’t holding them, His are. I can pray that they keep clinging to Him long after they stop clinging to me.

So today, we celebrate the birthday that wouldn’t have been, had we lived 100 years ago. We celebrate the first birthday with insulin as our best friend and worst enemy. We celebrate a milestone birthday with injections and carb counting and in a world still shut down with a pandemic. We celebrate with a smaller cake than usual and our only party being hanging out online with friends. But we celebrate with so much joy. Because Rowyn has the chance to keep growing, keep becoming the young man God intends him to be. And we celebrate with that certainty that though mama’s arms can’t fix it all, Abba’s can. We only have to abide there with Him. He may not change our circumstances–but He’ll change us to be victorious through them.

Hold us close, Abba God. And thank you.

“Our faith isn’t all the things we say we believe; it’s what we do next.”
~ Bob Goff, Live in Grace, Walk in Love

That. 😉 I feel like I could just leave you with that quote–shortest blog post ever, LOL. Because really, it says it so well, doesn’t it? It harkens to that “walk the walk” adage. It appeals to James’s “I’ll show you my faith by my works” line. It sums up pretty much all the commentary on living out what we believe, day by day and step by step.

I read this in Goff’s devotional several weeks ago, and it’s stuck with me. And as usual, it’s combined with other things I’ve been reading or otherwise coming across. The idea of loving our neighbors, truly loving them. The idea of loving our enemies. Of loving the sinner. It’s about what happens in our lives and in our hearts when the rubber meets the road.

In Dream Big (also by Bob Goff), one of the questions in the study section issues this challenge: Take your average Tuesday. List the things you do during that day.

How does it declare your faith?

Why is this profound? Because our lives aren’t lived in the big moments. Our faith isn’t proven only in a crisis or a victory. Our witness doesn’t rely on how we act at special events. It’s the everyday, the now, that really determines who we are and how we love God. So what’s in your Tuesday, or your Monday, or your Thursday afternoon? How does it shine His light into the darkness? What are you going to do in the next 30 minutes? The next hour? The next four? How does that intersect with your faith in the one true God and the Son who gave His life for you?

I think all too often we just mark time–we’re standing there, marching in place, waiting for the boring everyday stuff to be done so that we can get to what we really want to do. The weekend. The summer vacation. That big holiday. The mission trip. There’s nothing wrong with looking forward to any of those things, obviously…but they’re not what life is made of, are they? Life is more than the big moments. It’s ALL the moments in between. Our characters, our hearts, aren’t just definied by those big days, but rather by all the “meantime.”

The challenge that Goff issues, and which I’ve long tried to live out as well, is to live EACH day as if it’s the one you’ve been waiting for. Each normal, ordinary day is a chance to give glory to Him. It’s a chance to choose what we’re going to do next. It’s a chance not just to talk about our faith, but to walk in it. It’s a chance to chase our dreams. It’s a chance to mend a bridge. It’s a chance to try something new.

Make a call. Send an email. Write a letter. Bake cookies for those neighbors you’ve never met. Go out of your way to give lunch to the homeless man on the corner. Write that story you’ve been meaning to get started on. Or hey, just write down that epiphany from the other day in a journal. Do something nice for your most annoying coworker. Give away something to someone who knows how much it means to you, to prove to them that they mean more. Take the first step toward that off-the-wall, crazy dream that won’t leave you alone.

Do something. Do something today to be more like Christ. Do something today to give feet to the words we say so easily. Do something to make today special.

Don’t just say you believe in Jesus. Prove it. Prove it today.

Love the sinner, hate the sin.

You’ve heard this saying. I know you have. I’ve been hearing it all my life, and in its truest sense, it’s right. We are certainly called to hate sin. And we are certainly called the love everyone, neighbors and enemies alike. That includes sinners.

But what does this actually look like?

Well, Jesus gives us the ultimate example, of course. It looks like loving people so much, it breaks your heart to consider what separates them from the Father. It means giving your own life in order to keep them from paying the penalty for their sins. It means instructing people, showing them the Truth, teaching and living an example. It means bringing the kingdom of Heaven near to earth and showing people what it really means to live in the love of God.

I don’t imagine many of us quite live up to that though, LOL. I know that when I consider sinners–and let’s consider some really grievous ones, like those who hurt and abuse children, murderers, people who prey on the elderly–my first response to hearing about them is anger. Frustration. Disgust. I hate the sin, that’s for sure. And I want them to repent so they’ll stop doing it, stop hurting people. But it’s for the sake of those other people. The victims. In my natural state of reaction, I’m more concerned with the stopping than why they’re stopping. So if they’re arrested, awesome. Killed? Meh. I just want it to end.

This is natural. But it’s not what Christ modeled, and that’s something that’s been convicting me lately. He didn’t just want a sinner to stop sinning because of who they hurt. He wanted sinners to stop sinning because that sin stood between them and God. He wanted them to stop so that they could experience salvation. He wanted them to stop because He loved them.

But how did He approach this?

From what I can tell, He just focused on the love. When He saved the life of the woman caught in adultery, He didn’t have to sit her down and explain to her why adultery was wrong, did He? He didn’t look her in the eye and say, “I love you, but I hate what you’re doing.” He didn’t try to convince her of anything. All He did was offer forgiveness. All He did was refuse to condemn her. All He did was set her free and tell her to go, live her life, and sin no more. Now, I imagine “stop committing adultery” was pretty easy to check off her list. But sin no more doesn’t just mean the one sin she was caught in, did it? That woman would have gone home and embarked on a lifelong journey to figure out what “sin no more” really means. And she would have done it, because she understood that He was calling her to something higher. Because He loved her enough to save her life.

How do we approach the sinners who cross our paths? I think far too often, we focus on hating the sin. We say we love the sinner, but what we really mean is that we want them to stop sinning so that we can love them. We want them accept Christ so that they can be washed clean and then enter into fellowship with us. But we have it backward. We need to love them first. Just as they are. Love them messy, stinky, dirty, selfish, greedy, violent, hateful, bitter, perverted, nasty. Love them because they are a child of God, a bearer of His image, and He loves them so much He gave His Son’s life for them. He loves them so much, and just wants them to come home. Now, when they enter His mansion, they’ll see how spotless it is, how gleaming, how pure, and they won’t be able to help but look down at their own hands and see the filth there. Let Him do that work, that convicting.

We just need to focus on the love. My new mantra is going to be “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” Which is to say, “Just love the sinner.” I need to focus on the love, not the hate. Because if I truly love them, it will include wanting better for them. It will include wanting them to reconcile with the father. But it will focus not on what they’re doing, but rather on their heart and soul. On who they are beneath the actions.

How can you demonstrate love today to the worst among us?

Tomorrow is the inauguration here in the US. And the word tense doesn’t begin to describe the state of America right now. I don’t know your political stance or who you voted for. I don’t need to know. But if you’re reading my blog, chances are pretty good that you’re a Christ-follower. So no matter our politics, we ought to be living up to THIS standard:

“As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved,
clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness,
humility, gentleness, and patience.”
~ Colossians 3:12

I feel like I could just stop there, LOL, and let the verse speak for itself, right? In heated political climates, those virtues are often sorely lacking, and that is certainly the case now. But let’s examine them together, okay?

Compassion. A word we know so well we probably never pause to look it up. But the dictionary definition of compassion is “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with the desire to alleviate it.” Literally it means “suffering with.” What that does NOT mean is denying that the other’s suffering exists; saying it’s nothing compared to YOUR suffering; saying they deserve it. What it does NOT mean is saying, “I wish it were otherwise but what can I do?” Compassion means putting yourself with the sufferer–and it does not specify that you show compassion only to those “on your side.” On the contrary, I think Paul is talking here about how we interact in the world. Because this, my friends, is how we show the world who Christ is. To whom did we see Him showing compassion? Sinners. Are we doing the same? Are we doing it especially when people attack our beliefs, our stances, our ideals?

Kindness. “The quality of being sympathetic or helpful.” Again, this isn’t just about how we treat our families and spouses and church members, right? This should be how the world sees us. The world should look at a Christian and go, “Wow. They’re so kind!” Is that how non-believers are viewing us right now? If not, we have some work to do. People should never have to fear how Christians will react. We should never be the ones characterized by violence and hatred and bitterness.

Humility. “Freedom from pride or arrogance.” This could also be explained as not seeking your own. When one is humble and filled with humility, one doesn’t have an agenda. We’re not seeking “my way.” When we’re clothed with humility, we seek ONLY to glorify God and to encourage others. We will do the best we can in any given situation…but never for ourselves. Humility doesn’t involve seeking power or control. It certainly doesn’t mean turning to violence when you think you’ve been wronged or justice has been perverted. This will happen, my friends. The world is, after all, still the world. Still a sinful place. But Christianity does not change the world by attacking it. Christianity changes the world by seeking an active peace and turning the other cheek. By modeling a better way.

Gentleness. This one backs up what I’ve been saying above, in case you doubted me, LOL. “Characterized by being free from harshness, sternness, or violence.” But are we gentle? It’s not a virtue that we’re usually taught to seek, really. We’ve built a culture that values the bold, the brash, the loud, the outrageous, the ones who shout from the rooftops, who tear down arguments, who rip enemies to shreds, who conquer on the battlefield. But we’re called to do the opposite. We’re called never to speak or act harshly. We’re called not to be stern. We’re called to steer clear of violence.

Patience. Patience doesn’t just mean waiting without complaining, like standing in line or enduring a toddler’s endless questions. It means “bearing pains or trials calmly.” It means “manifesting forebearance under provocation or strain.” Are you feeling provoked right now? Probably. Strained? Yup. Do you feel like we’re going through a trial? I daresay you do. Which means this is the time to shine the light of Christ more brightly. This is the time to model Christian patience. This is not the time to shout at the top of your lungs that a wrong has been done or that ruin is on its way or to lose your cool. It’s the time to turn to God in prayer and ask Him how we can show His love better. How we can love our enemies as He loves them. How we can be His hands and feet.

Something struck me the other day as I was contemplating how Christ interacted with the people in His world. The only ones He ever spoke harshly to were the religious leaders. The people who should have been responsible for helping the masses draw closer to God but who were instead seeking their own advancement, their own prosperity, their own righteousness. The only time we ever see Him resorting to violence was when confronting the people trying to profit from the sacrifice. When dealing with sinners, Christ ONLY offers compassion. He doesn’t even rebuke them–He doesn’t have to. They see perfection modeled in Him. They know, when they look at Him, what the better way is. All He has to say is, “You’re forgiven. Go and sin no more.”

When it comes to politics, all He ever says is “Give Caesar what’s Caesar’s.” He didn’t lead an uprising against the unjust, ungodly civilization that held His country under its heel. He didn’t call for Herod to be denounced and someone from David’s line to be put back on the throne. He didn’t participate in protests against Rome or spend His life advocating for the nation of Israel to, as a nation, renew its dedication to the Law. He spoke to individuals and called them to examine their hearts. He spoke to the marginalized, the outcasts, the hated, the overlooked, and told them to take heart. He spoke to the sinners and told them to step into a new life. He pointed out that if we love first, the rest of the law will follow.

So many people in Jesus’s day decided He couldn’t be the Messiah because He didn’t seek power on earth.

So many Christians today are fearful about what might happen if “our side” loses power. But here’s the thing, my friends. We don’t need political power. We don’t need to seek political power. We only need to model Christ. And He didn’t operate through policy or lobbies or law. He operated through LOVE. And He loves the sinner every bit as much as the saint. Let’s remember that it was the sinner He met with compassion, and the seemingly-righteous He called out. Let’s remember that we’re called not to seek our own way but to model His.

Let’s remember that we’re called to model Him–to model perfection–so that we don’t have to call out sin. All we should have to do is live out His love. He’ll take care of the rest.