Life's Interruptions or Divine Invitations

What if the interruptions in your day aren’t distractions… but invitations? In this short reflective episode, Kara shares a personal insight drawn from her own life and the life of Christ in Scripture. Jesus never pushed people away because they weren’t part of “the plan.” He embraced them as the plan.

This episode invites you to rethink the way you see the unexpected moments in your own life—those small or inconvenient interruptions—as potential encounters with God’s grace. 

This week, when you’re interrupted: Stop. Breathe. Reflect: “Lord, is this an invitation from you? Help me to embrace this moment and invite grace.”

The show is sponsored by CyberCloak.Tech

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Thank you for listening to DrawNear with Fred and Kira.

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Drawnear is brought to you locally by Cybercloak.tech, providing confidence and cybersecurity for small businesses. Learn more by contacting Cybercloak.tech's CTO and founder, Steve Gretkin, at 712-220-3001. Welcome to a bonus episode of Draw Near. Here we reflect on God's deep love and his call to transform our lives.

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Always rooted in the Catholic faith, today we're here for a brief, heartfelt conversation we hope inspires and encourages you.

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Thanks for joining us on this shared journey. Let's draw near together.

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Thanks for joining me for this shorty episode. While it's just me for this one, uh please keep Fred in your prayers. He is actually at a conference this week, so just pray for safe travels and obviously that God's plan and his will would be done for the conference. But before we get into the topic for this shorty episode, and I guess speaking of conferences, as Fred's at a conference, I wanted to also mention that our annual Draw Near retreat is coming up. Um, we love getting to see and meet listeners, people who come to the retreat every year and they're like, yeah, I listen to this episode, or, you know, I listen to you guys all the time. It's such a joy for us because draw near is much more than just a podcast or a website, you know. It's it's something that we desire to be relational. Um that's the whole point of draw near, draw near to God, and draw near to one another and community, just like the two greatest commandments, right? Love God and love each other. And so we love getting to meet all of you and growing in relationship. And so we would like to invite you to the Draw Near Retreat. It's coming up on August 9th, so it's a little over a month away, but it's definitely gonna sneak up on us. And it's in Sioux City, Iowa. So if anyone is anywhere close to Sioux City, Iowa, we would love to see you. I'm gonna put a link in the show notes to either just learn a little bit more about it and what the day will look like, or if you would like to register. Um, we try to always keep it very affordable, and it's just a really great way to, you know, to be intentional with your time, to grow in a relationship with the Lord and to give that Saturday over to God. Um, and we tried to keep it where it was like right in that sweet spot of like, you know, I might be back at college if I'm moving in early. I might be just about to leave, but I want to still, you know, make time for God. Or even like those younger kids who have had the that experience at a retreat this summer or camp, and they're like, I'm not done yet, you know. Um bring them along. We would love, we would absolutely love that. So it's on our homepage of our website, drawnear.me. Um you can register, we'll put your name on the list, and then you actually just pay at the door. So it's not something you need to um need to pay for right now. But we'd love to see you August 9th. All right, but for today's shorty episode, I actually really wanted to offer just a little bit of insight into something that I've kind of been reflecting on in my own personal life. Um, so just a little bit of of like a backstory. I've currently been in the midst of like a pretty big project for work, um, which has meant, and by work I mean draw near stuff, you know, because we share all the time, like we left full-time ministry to do this. And that has meant a lot more uh like sitting down. But I don't actually have an office, which means that my office is my kitchen table, and my kitchen table looks directly into the living room or the kitchen, which is exactly where uh like everybody hangs out all day long. So my kids can visibly see me, which in their minds then means I am accessible. They can bring questions, they can ask me anything, you know, they can ask for help. That's just that's okay. It's life of parenthood, but it's also really hard to get the things done that I need to get done when that's happening. But the thing that kind of sparked this reflection, I guess, on my own like intention and my own heart was there was this one day where my daughter was just particularly interested in what I was doing. I don't want to say disruptive, because that's kind of the whole point of what we're talking about. And she just kept on interrupting me. You know, mama, mama, yes, dear. I need to go potty. Okay, we go potty. Mama, yes, hands me wipes. Can you wash my face? Yes, I can wash your face. Mama, what? Can you get me water? Yes, I can get up and get you water, right? Mama, hmm, is it snack time yet? No, it's not snack time yet. Mama, then she just gets a look from me. I need to go potty again. All right, we get up and we go potty again, right? As you can see, it's like progressively, I'm getting just a little bit less patient, a little bit less patient. And I'm sure any parent who has ever, like you have something you need to get done. And in this case, there was a deadline where I needed to get done, or you have something that's like a time crunch, and you just keep getting interrupted. Any parent who has ever experienced this, you know what's coming, right? She comes back up, and I know what's coming. She comes back up, mama, mama. And here's here's the thing with my daughter, and I think this is probably like any three-year-old. Until you acknowledge, they just stand and stand there and repeat the same thing, right? Mama, mama, mama, mama, mama. You don't know what's coming. What do you need? I am trying to get this done, right? There's that like frustration, that obvious frustration. And she just looks at me and goes, I love you and walks away. She does that sometimes where she just comes up to me randomly and she says, I love you. But in this moment, immediate guilt. All right, immediate guilt. I snapped at my three-year-old daughter because she was interrupting the schedule that I had planned for my to-do list, what I needed to get done. And all she wanted in that moment was to tell me that she loved me. So I've been reflecting a lot on this idea of interruptions and really like asking, are there such things as interruptions? Are there really such things as interruptions? That might seem absolutely crazy because like the word exists because the concept exists. Yes, there are such things as interruptions, but I kind of was looking at it like, but what if it's not actually an interruption, but an invitation? Because I think the way that something is viewed in our own minds, like our own outlook, that's what then makes it an interruption, right? If we're annoyed by it, like I was in that moment, that now all of a sudden I need to change my plans. I need to focus on something other than what I wanted to get done in this moment. Yes, this is an interruption to my plan. But what if we thought of these moments in our life a lot differently? Not as like disruptions to our own plan, but almost as a divine invitation or a divine appointment to God's plan for us. What if these things that pop up are meant to either lead us to the people, places, and missions that need our help, or they're meant to help us? Like in that moment of snapping at my daughter and she just giving me humble love, just complete innocent love, and me feeling guilt. Like that's a moment from the Lord of calling me to something more, calling me to step outside of myself and my own plan. So just to share an example, I guess. Um, there was this one time where after mass, okay, so any any time after mass, like my family kind of has a routine, my husband will take all of the kids up to the Mary statue, wherever it is, and they pray a Hail Mary. So they're like, we gotta go visit Mary. And then I stay back in the pew and I either, you know, get the baby put away in his car seat or I clean up the whole pew, which is a disaster. And then we go, we would go back to the car. And, you know, my husband grew up, his mom was a DRE. My mom was always just very social at church, and we were always like waiting in the car for 15 minutes for her to come out. And so I think we both grew up with just like always having to wait. And so we usually just go right to the car. That's kind of all we like what we've always done. But I I would say, like, I wouldn't call myself social in this situation, but I do tend to like enjoy checking in with those people who I regularly see at mass or who have asked for like a prayer intention. I want to go like check in and see how they're doing. And there was this one mass where um my husband was on his way, like he was he was in the car. And I had my son and I had my now almost three-year-old daughter in my hands, and we didn't have our youngest yet. So I was walking and um I came across somebody who I had met, but it was very briefly, like we were really just acquaintances at that point. I had met her at a couple of the retreats that I would help put on, and I asked how she was doing. It was kind of like a a little bit of a disruption from our normal because, like, we were in the parking lot on the way to the car. I knew my husband was waiting for me, and I asked, How are you doing? And, you know, she started sharing like she had been experiencing back pain and she had trouble with sciatica and things like that. And I remembered, um, just like the thing that Fred and I always talk about when you say you're going to pray with somebody, don't just say you're going to pray or oh, I'll pray for you, but stop and pray for them. And so we were in the middle of the parking lot while cars were like trying to leave. And we stepped over to the side and I asked her, Can I pray for you? Can I pray for your back? And she goes, Yeah, sure. And I and I go, like right now. And she goes, Oh, sure, yeah. So I had my my son standing there, and thankfully, you know, he was he was calm as could be. It was very much a grace moment. And I had my daughter in my arms, and we just stopped in the middle of the parking lot, and I put my hand on her shoulder and I prayed for for healing for her back for sciatica. And I just like I share that example, not in any way like as like a braggy thing, 100% as this was like a moment where I was like, oh shoot, you know, I hope, I hope my husband's not frustrated, like that we're taking forever. Oh, I hope these people who are going around us don't think we're weird. Oh, I hope my kids aren't just gonna be like really, really loud in this moment. Oh, I hope that, you know, she actually experiences some healing. Like there were there were all of these like questions and fears that could also act as disruptors to this moment that was essentially an interruption to regular life. But it was also an invitation from God. And I am so grateful for that moment because I still to this day am so grateful that that like she was willing to share that and she experienced, you know, some relief from that pain that she was having. But there was so much grace in that moment in that parking lot. And I think it also was like a teaching moment for me from God to have courage to do that regularly, because that was actually probably one of the first times I not that I had prayed publicly with somebody in the moment, but prayed for healing for somebody publicly in that moment. And so it was almost like this affirmation from the Lord, too. And had we not been willing to accept, by we, I guess, me, um, and maybe my kids and my husband, been willing to accept that disruption to our everyday norm, none of that would have happened. Grace is poured out upon this woman and as well as myself. And so I think sometimes these interruptions to our day can actually become invitations if we allow them to. And, you know, we see this in the life of Christ. Jesus is our example in everything. He is our example in how we are to think, how we are to love, how we are to live. And he is quite the example of embracing interruptions. I feel like majority of the gospels are literally just accounts of Jesus being interrupted by things, right? You see Jesus on his way to go and heal Jairus' daughter, and along the way, he encounters a hemorrhaging woman, right? If I can only touch his the hem of his garment and she's healed, and he says, Your faith has saved you. He encounters this woman, this woman gets to encounter him, and she finally gets healing and relief from 12 years of pain. Right. In Luke, in Luke 7, Jesus was entering a town at the same time that there was a funeral procession happening, and it was a widow who had just lost her only son, meaning her son was the one who was caring for her, and he had just died, and so she now was essentially homeless, no one to care for her, no one to provide for her. Jesus was so moved with compassion that he raised her son from the dead, inciting just this like awe of this great work of who they thought was this great prophet in their time, Jesus. But that was an interruption, right? In the Gospel of John, Jesus is celebrating at a friend's wedding with all of his friends in Cana, and he is interrupted by the need for more wine, and he listens to his mother, he begins his ministry early. That was an interruption. Jesus is preaching in a home and is interrupted when the roof is taken off and someone is lowered in down into it, into it in front of him, and he forgives this man of his sins and he heals him from paralysis. That was an interruption. In Luke 19, Jesus is passing through Jericho, but there is a man in a tree, Zacchaeus, who desperately wanted to see Jesus, and yet the scripture says he was passing through. But Jesus paused, he calls him down from the tree and says, I'm gonna stay with you. I need to stay with you tonight. No longer is he passing through. This was an interruption to the plan, right? People were coming to Jesus all the time for teachings, for healings, and then people started bringing children to him, and the disciples, they rebuked them to cast away the infants, cast away the children. But Jesus embraced the unwanted by the disciples here, this unwanted interruption of children. He says, uh, scripture says, But Jesus called them to him, saying, Let the children come to me, do not hinder them. For to such belongs the kingdom of God. And truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter in it. There are countless, countless accounts in Scripture of interruptions. But what do all of these uh have in common? They're all scriptural passages of events, teachings, or healings. A lot of them are like key, key events, key teachings, like the healing of the paralytic. That is a key teaching. But they all were not necessarily the plan. And yet Jesus saw all of these people and all of these interruptions as his mission, as a part of his mission. I think there are a lot of things in my life, in in your life, I imagine, that pull your attention or that require you to step back and make a plan, or maybe those those things that like we want control over. We need to, we need to have the outcome at hand, right? But then what happens when God completely disrupts the plan? What happens? What happens with like the way that you're thinking about it? What happens with your emotions? Does it lead to just complete chaos and madness or anger or frustration or the need to vent because something didn't go our way? Are we able to pause? Are we able to let go of our own plan and let in this new one that's that's supposed to come about? Or do we invite like this genuine reflection or this genuine question of what or who is really my mission in this moment? Right. Because in the moment where I was sitting at the kitchen table trying to work, my mission was I have to get pages done in a week and a half. That is my deadline. So nobody bother me. I have a plan, right? But my daughter coming and asking for help, for care, for service, for bathroom troops, for water and for love and attention. She is my vocation. She was in this moment the mission that God was placing in front of me to pause and let go of the lesson planning and to just love my family. Even if it was pausing for five minutes to give this child the innocent attention that she desired, that was the mission. But just imagine what in your life could take place when we let go of our own plans, when we embrace divine disruptions and see them as invitations, and we just say yes to God's plan. So I want to end this reflection with the Our Father prayer and really focusing on thy will be done. Thy will be done. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen.

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Thank you once again for listening to Draw Near with Fred and Cara. Draw near is brought to you locally by Cybercloak.tech, providing confidence and cybersecurity for small businesses. Learn more by contacting Cybercloak.tech's CTO and founder, Steve Gretkin, at 712 220 3001. We now return to regularly scheduled programming here on Sioux and Catholic Radio.