Motivation Monday - Why the Gift of Disruption Trumps Interruption
“We are living in a world disrupted. Forever. Not just interrupted. We must ask what needs to be surrendered from the idols we once served that now we must lay down in order to pick up a new way of being disciples after a disruption. We must surrender the desire to go back to what we knew.”
When the world first became aware it was facing a pandemic, my first thought was that my life would be interrupted. And then, it would go back to normal.
That’s what I thought. Maybe you did too. We were both so wrong.
I created new ways of rescheduling, new rhythms, new recipes, a new rethinking of relationships that moved online, that would serve this new reality that was supposed to only last a short while, and then I would go back to the way it once was.
That’s how I responded. Maybe you did too. We were both so wrong.
I received the interruption as an annoyance and wanted it to be done. I had no idea that what I was being gifted with was disruption and all the ways it would impact the reordering of my life.
Here is the what I think the difference is between being interrupted and being disrupted.
Interrupt is when something is stopped, and then restarted without damage.
“The meeting was interrupted by a person shouting loudly.”
The meeting ends and then life after the meeting goes on as normal.
Disrupt is when something is interfered with or otherwise broken, pulled apart, and will not be the same as before.
“The meeting was disrupted by the bomb that exploded in the middle of it.”
The meeting ends but nothing will ever be the same for everyone in the meeting.
Our world has had a bomb explode, without invitation, in the middle of it.
Nothing will ever be the same.
And instead of waving our fists and asking for the old to be returned to us,
God may be calling us to something new, something necessary
and something that renders the old obsolete.
It is similar to Jesus breaking into our world and declaring that the Law - given as a reminder to His people that they were being shaped into a people set apart, called and being sanctified through the law to serve God solely and faithfully – was no longer the covenant in play. It was time for a new covenant.
Jesus created a new way, He declared Himself the Good Shepherd, the bread, the vine, the new wine – and the new way. Once the old was abolished at the cross once and for all, there was never the option to go back.
We are living in a world disrupted. Forever. Not just interrupted. We must ask what needs to be surrendered from the idols we once served that now we must lay down in order to pick up a new way of being disciples after a disruption. We must surrender the desire to go back to what we knew.
Maybe this new way of following Christ, unhindered by the cares and the distractions of expecting the world to be something it can never be, is really the first way that Christ called his first disciples to.
“Come, follow me”, was a Jesus-invitation intended to disrupt everything they had known. Jesus was asking them and is asking you: “Leave your boats, your profession, your empty nets, your ordinary lives and follow me into the middle of everything you ever wanted to experience, but never dreamed you could.”
This kind of new life isn’t lived in a bubble of safety and predictability. This new life is lived with Jesus in the middle of storms, of bombs exploding, of the threat of economic and political unrest, of polarizing issues, of fear of the future. This new life carries the possibility of inexpressible joy and unwavering trust because the new life after disruption places all of its’ hopes on the shoulders of the only Person who can carry the past, the present and the future.
Jesus disrupts. He is not predictable. But he is safe.
He doesn’t want for you to unfollow or go back to all that you knew. He called Peter to be a fisher of men after he disrupted his ordinary life, not to go back to fishing fish.
There is the opportunity for new after disruption. Do not reduce this current reality to merely an interruption. Walk through it and live in it fully, with Jesus, and embrace the disruption.
“God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.” (Psalm 51:10)
The genesis new can only be shaped from disruption, not interruption, because that is only when you become desperate enough to want it.
I pray you believe in the new, in what can and will be. Embrace the ways your world has been disrupted and receive it as a gift and the invitation to something new. And keep praying for all the genesis ways God will shape your new beginning in the days to come.
I believe in you!
Cathie