Jesus seemed to consider interruption as a valuable opportunity. I wish I felt this way. I’m working on it. That’s what this newsletter is about.

Whether they needed practical help, a word of encouragement, or physical healing, Jesus saw human interruptions as golden opportunity to add value to the lives of others. He lived an interruptible life.

The Interruptible Samaritan

Let’s zoom in today on the masterpiece story Jesus told in Luke 10:25-37. The Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Jesus crafted this parable to drive home a point about what righteousness looks like in reality. The message of this story strikes such a deep chord in us that we’ve been retelling it for 2,000 years.

The story is dramatic. A man is traveling alone by foot when he is ambushed by robbers who savagely beat him, steal his money and clothes, and leave him half-dead on the ground.

Two religious leaders, a priest and a scholar, are shocked to discover this wounded man in the ditch. They know they should help, but they are busy and important and don’t really want to get involved so they walk on the other side of the road and leave their fellow man helpless and alone. Even as they hurry to their temple duties and Bible study it is assumed that they remain certain of their righteousness before God.

Then a foreigner, an outcast, happens by. He’s someone from a group everyone thinks of as low, unrighteous people, so far from being like God. Yet, when the mongrel outcast sees this wounded man, he drops everything and rushes to help him.

He gets blood all over himself, carries the man to safety, washes, and bandages the man's wounds, then transports him to an inn to rest. He recruits a caregiver for him. He even promises to pay any further costs to make sure this Jewish man (who might have despised him on any other day) recovers fully.

He’s just doing what his heart tells him naturally to do. He is abundantly interruptible as a person. He reflects the nature of God. He is living as a man in God’s image. He is righteous.

Our Samaritan Opportunities

I bring up this story for myself as well as for you. We really need this teaching today because in our modern world we are just so busy. We’ve got a never-ending to-do list. Every moment counts, right?

On our busiest days it still happens to us. Out of the corner of our eye we spot someone struggling. Maybe it's the old guy next door, his arms full of grocery bags, looking like he might drop them any second. Or someone who's clearly lost, looking around trying to find their way. Maybe it’s someone who gets emotional at work and clearly needs someone to talk to.

There's this voice from our better self urging us, ”Go!, help out."

But then there's the counterforce

The excuses:

* I'm Too Busy to Stop: Helping would mean a delay, a disruption in my carefully planned day.

* I'm Too Shy to Help: I have social anxiety. What if they don't want or need my help? What if it's awkward? Or Let's call it what it is -

* I'm…just feeling selfish, because most times it’s not really about the time lost or any other factor. We just want to keep our bubble of comfort intact. We love our bubble more than we love others. May sound harsh, but it’s the fact with too many people. Jesus said that one of the signs of the last age was that the “love of many would grow cold.”

Walking with Jesus isn't about doing grand acts of heroism; it's about responding to simple moments with the people he puts right in front of you.

A Challenge for the Week

Our discipleship challenge for this week is to actually look forward to a miracle moment each day where God positions you to help someone in need.

Just ask God to make it happen. Ask him to put you in position for a GSM (Good Samaritan Moment), when someone shows up with a need.

Ask the Lord for the privilege of being interrupted so you can act as God’s own hands, his voice, his kind eyes. Pray it over and over till you mean it. That’s what I have to do to knock down resistance in my own mind.

What an opportunity! A chance to work with God.

The parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us to be available for others, even when it's inconvenient. It’s a call to cultivate a lifestyle that considers interruption a golden opportunity to add value to another person’s life in the name of the Lord.

So this week let’s embrace interruption. When you see a need, stop what you are doing and act on it, even if it disrupts your plans.

I’m going to do it and I hope you will join me. Share the stories in the comments below or in the chat.

It’s going to be amazing! (How cool if this became our actual lifestyle!)

Walking With You in His Footsteps,

CQ

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