Please Interrupt Me
Excerpt from Acts 10: 44 – 48
“While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.”
Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson
Most of us don’t appreciate being interrupted. We don’t care for someone cutting in or cutting us off when we’re speaking. Understandable. We’re taught as children, “Please don’t interrupt.” Interrupting is bad manners. Wait your turn.
Still, it’s hard to imagine Peter, who is interrupted by the Holy Spirit while preaching, saying, “Excuse me, Spirit, please don’t interrupt me, can’t you see I’m talking?” In reality and to his credit, Peter, while astonished by the Spirit’s interruption, seems to welcome it. He goes with it, saying, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”
I wonder if the Holy Spirit is trying to interrupt us more often than we know?
It seems to me that God often works through what may feel to us like interruptions, even disruptions, to our plans and programs, our agendas and big statements. Sometimes at least, those interruptions that feel like breakdowns lead to breakthroughs. And interruptions prove holy intrusions. Perhaps God is not so much in the business of maintaining our desired order as disturbing our bland, Spirit-less way of doing things? Let us pray, urgently, for God’s holy and unsettling interruptions, for eyes to see them, ears to hear them, and hearts to receive them.
Prayer
Still speaking God, interrupt us. Interrupt our sermons. Intrude upon our churches. Invade our world. Please, we pray, interrupt us. Amen.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment