By Rev. Philip Roland
April 24, 2008 11:23 pm
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Have you ever been inconvenienced by an interruption? You will be busy concentrating on a project and can’t be interrupted. Then it happens almost at the most critical moment of completion. The doorbell or telephone rings, someone taps you on the shoulder and you lose your concentration. You feel your blood pressure rising as you give your interrupter your best, “This better be good” look. Not always, but occasionally that interruption is a “divine appointment” in disguise.
My most memorable divine interruption happened in the late ’60s at our local Baptist church. I grew to hate Sunday evening church services, because the preacher measured his ego on the strength of the attendance of the faithful. He was a choleric evangelist attempting to do a pastor’s job. He was shame-based and blamed his faithful stragglers for not bringing in all their friends and neighbors to hear him present the Gospel.
Didn’t we love them? Did we enjoy the prospects of seeing them burn in hell? This was the way he continually harangued us on Sunday evenings until he would be emotionally exhausted and give the altar call and closing prayer.
The particular night in question was not particularly different from any other Sunday night, except that the front doors of the church were open and in stumbled a severely inebriated man. Now, there is no one as religious as a drunk. This man was no exception.
He sat on the back pew of the church and bowed his head and attempted to pray. I was on the podium with the preacher and I had a clear view of what was happening. The drunk looked up at the pulpit and squinted his eyes. He listened for a few minutes. His eyes widened as his nostrils flared. He stood up and moved to the center aisle of the church, walked a few steps, pointed at the preacher and interrupted loudly.
“Sir, you do these people no service! Don’t you know who you are talking to? These are the faithful people of God. God loves them! How can you talk to them this way? You do them no service!”
The preacher gestured to two deacons. They pulled the drunk out of the service with his heels making furrows in the carpet as they drug him out and closed the door behind them.
That night we experienced a “divine interruption,” and heard a true word from God. As an addendum to that situation, if God can speak through Balaam’s donkey, he can speak through a drunk if no one else is available to speak for Him. See the Old Testament book of Numbers, chapter 22.
Lessons from divine interruptions:
1. God’s people are silent when sometimes they need to speak up for themselves.
2. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck and has feathers, it’s a duck.
3. Look for God in the less obvious situations of your life.
4. Interruptions may provide opportunities for genuine ministry and service to others.
5. God can use any person who is willing to be inconvenienced by the unexpected.
Rev. Philip B. Roland is the founding pastor of Sheepfold Ministries, Sharon. He has served Kelley-Robb Funeral Home in Hubbard for 16 years as a grief counselor, and grief group facilitator.
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