Monday, June 2, 2014

An Interruptable Life

Yeah, starting this post with a made up spelling in the title. That's how this is going down.

Yesterday in church we were talking about the story of Ruth. The part that struck me the most was not how Naomi and Orpah stuck with her after the deaths of their husbands, but how she was known for her character. Ruth was the type of woman that if someone accused her of doing or saying something with malice, no one would believe it.

That lead to a discussion of how to cultivate such characteristics within ourselves and someone brought up the idea of "living for others and being willing to have an interruptable life". We make ourselves increasingly busy with things that don't really matter so when we get that inkling to reach out to a friend or take a moment to make someone's day brighter, we can't possibly take that time because of how it might delay our plans. It's incredibly easy to get caught up in our plans and dismiss the opportunities to be a positive light in someone's life because it takes effort away from those goals.

This is where having a life that can be interrupted comes in to play. There have been several times in my life where I can say without question that my friends or family have interrupted their lives to reach out to me when they felt I needed it. They've pretty much always been right. I cherish those times and am (at least temporarily) inspired to follow their example. I want to be the sort of person who isn't so busy trying to further my own interests that I ignore promptings to put my life on pause and uplift another. 

So that's just it - be willing to have an interruptable life and see how your life changes when you change the lives of others.