How to Receive the Assignment When God Interrupts Your Plans
Three green tomatoes rest on the table in the morning light like they’re just waiting for the golden rays to wash them into ripened red. I admire them with blurry eyes, the weight of my exhaustion hanging overhead like a raincloud. When God interrupts your plans, it can feel like a shock to the system.
When God Interrupts Your Plans
I spent the night lying awake with a little boy who had a tummy ache—his warm hands patting my face and rubbing my back through the dark hours of a sleepless night.
Hours later, I sit in the pewter glow of dawn and consider the day ahead. I had plans to finish a big writing project—hours of mind-bending creative work, work that makes me feel like I’m making a difference in this world.
However, as I consider my exhaustion, I face the disappointment of admitting that this won’t be a writing day after all. My tired mind won’t cooperate to produce creative work in this condition, and my little boy is too sick to visit his grandparents. This day will not go as planned.
Instead of writing, I’ll muddle through the motions in an exhausted stupor. I’ll empty throw-up buckets and bribe my fevered child in an attempt to keep him hydrated. It will be a hard day—not the day I was expecting or hoping for.
God’s Unexpected Assignments
You know about these days because you experience them, too.
Trips get canceled.
Kids get sick.
Aging parents call with pressing needs.
Husbands need rides to hospitals.
Plans fall apart.
If you’re at all like me, you don’t receive interruptions with open hands. When God interrupts your plans, you receive these interruptions with grumbling and protests about what you should be doing instead.
When God Interrupts Your Plans, Speak These Words . . .
I’m protesting the change of plans when it occurs to me to ask God what he wants me to know about the day ahead.
I remind myself that he is sovereign over tummy aches, writing days, and all of life’s interruptions, and I whisper a prayer that goes something like this: “Father, this is not how I wanted this day to go. Show me what you want me to know about this day.”
God doesn’t speak to me in an audible voice, but a soft impression settles over me—a deep sense of knowing what I need to do. I write the following words in my journal like a letter to my tired self:
Tired Mama, your job right now is to be a mom, and that means you will sometimes feel weak and weary. Today, your calling is to care for your child amid your exhaustion. The Lord is not asking for more than this from you, so don’t put pressure on yourself to accomplish more than what he asks of you.
You wanted to write today, but God has different plans. It’s okay to be tired. This is part of the calling. Care for your little boy. Comfort him. Be kind. Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of feeling frustrated about what you are not accomplishing. You are doing God’s work. When God interrupts your plans, you are doing the most important work by embracing the interruptions. God is not asking for more than this from you.
Whose Plans Are We Following?
I sit with the words for a while as the morning sunshine breaks through the maples outside the window.
How many times have I shaken my fist at God, accusing him of denying my daily bread, when in reality, I was trying to conform my life to fit into a self-imposed mold?
I have the best of intentions. I assess the time set before me and decide how I might use the time to glorify God.
Usually, my ideas feel important and applause-worthy: ideas like writing books and leading Bible studies and mentoring younger women. Sadly, when God sends a different assignment, I feel angry and resentful, especially when the different assignment doesn’t feel applause-worthy whatsoever.
Emptying a little boy’s puke bucket feels far less praiseworthy than working on a manuscript.
When God humbles me in the presence of an assignment I would never choose for myself, he also asks me to remember that public accolades don’t determine the value of my work for the Lord. Some of the most important work we will ever accomplish is the quiet, humble work that never receives a single pat on the back. Peace awaits us when we learn to receive the assignments God sets before us.
Some of the most important work we will ever accomplish is the quiet, humble work that never receives a single pat on the back. #humility #faith #God Share on XWhen God Interrupts Your Plans, Receive His Assignment
You might not feel like driving your elderly loved one to the doctor for the third day in a row.
You probably don’t feel thrilled about sitting through another parent-teacher meeting to discuss your child’s failure to thrive in this year’s exceptionally challenging classroom.
Most likely, you’re not doing cartwheels over the fact that you’re heading into five long days at a job that’s sucking the life from you.
I’m with you.
Yet here’s what I’m learning: God asks us to fulfill the work he gives to us, not more than this.
Do you believe God led you to be the president of the school board, the director of the children’s ministry at your church, and the full-time caregiver for three children, all while working online from home?
If so, then do the work with a grateful heart. But if not—or if it’s all starting to feel like too much—maybe it’s time to step back and talk to God. Ask him what he wants you to cut out so that you can fulfill the assignment he has placed in front of you.
As much as I want to write words to encourage others and point them to the Lord, there are days when my assignment has nothing to do with writing.
There are days when my task is to be a tired mom tending to a sick child. On other days, my work is to stay sick and fevered in bed and tend to my own body.
Some days, God calls me to drive across town and sit with a heartbroken loved one or drop everything to watch a friend’s children so she can go to counseling.
When God Interrupts Our Plans, the Interruptions Are Our Work
God’s assignments come in thousands of different shapes and sizes, and they often come in the form of interruptions.
We can grumble about the interruptions and resist them, or we can recognize that the interruptions are assignments straight from the hand of our sovereign heavenly Father. In his book The Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life, Henri Nouwen writes:
While visiting the University of Notre Dame, where I had been a teacher for a few years, I met an older experienced professor who had spent most of his life there. And while we strolled over the beautiful campus, he said with a certain melancholy in his voice, “You know, my whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered that my interruptions were my work.”
Today, my little boy’s sickness feels like an interruption to God’s work. I complain about the way the interruptions interfere with my work; meanwhile, the interruptions are my work.
An Invitation to Talk to God About Your Unexpected Assignments
We all face interruptions to our plans and God-given assignments we didn’t sign up for.
Let’s take a few minutes to seek God about how we might embrace deeper peace by receiving his unexpected assignments with open hearts and open hands.
I encourage you to find a quiet place to meet with God and spend a few minutes letting your thoughts settle. When your mind feels quiet, reflect on the following questions:
- Has any area of your life been interrupted lately?
- How is your current season of life different from what you hoped for?
- What does God want to show you about this interruption?
Imagine the Day Ahead
After working through these questions, take a moment to imagine walking through the predictable events of the next day of your life.
Ask God to bring to mind any parts of the day that tend to frustrate you or times when you often feel interrupted.
Imagine reacting to the interruptions with a loving heart. How will you treat your closest loved ones, coworkers, and friends when they interrupt your agenda? What will it look like to set aside your plans and meet the needs in front of you with a soft, compassionate heart?
As you step into the next day of your life, deliberately try to receive every interruption with a loving heart. Love the person in front of you, even when it’s inconvenient.
Slow down.
Practice putting the needs of others ahead of your desires as often as possible.
Ask God to help you be his vessel of love in these situations.
At the end of the day, journal about your experience. Were you able to shift your perspective and view today’s interruptions as God’s work for you? In what ways did this mindset help you? Did you fail at all? What does the Lord want to show you about your life as a result of this exercise?
Some of the best gifts are not planned or expected. They show up with expectations of their own, and in the end, they bless you in ways you never imagined. God wants to use the interruptions in your life to shape you, transform you, and bless you. Today is the day to embrace them.
A Free Devotional to Help You Connect with God:
I have a gift for you today: my free 31-day devotional Mornings With Jesus. Mornings With Jesus is not your average daily devotional—it is so much more! This devotional is unique because, in addition to daily readings and reflection questions, it also offers a special section at the end of each post called “Your Invitation to Encounter God and Begin Well.” These exercises will help you actually encounter the Living God during your quiet time. Instead of asking $9.99, I’m offering this devotional for free with promo code JESUS for a limited time right here.
These books are free on Kindle Unlimited or available to purchase in print:
God wants to work in your life to accomplish what you’ve been unable to do through willpower alone. Lean Into Grace: Let God’s Grace Heal Your Heart, Refresh Your Soul, and Set You Free shares practical ways to experience God’s freedom, healing, power, and presence in your life. Find this life-changing book as a free eBook on Kindle Unlimited or for 12.99 in print right here. (If you do not have Kindle Unlimited, you can try it out with a free three-month trial!) This book will transform your life and revitalize your relationship with the Lord!
Calling all moms and daughters!
Additionally, my teen daughter, Bekah, and I are passionate about helping moms and daughters grow closer while connecting with God. We have written two mother-daughter devotionals together. Girl to Girl: 60 Mother-Daughter Devotions for a Closer Relationship and Deeper Faith is written for girls ages 7-12. It includes 60 devotions with Scripture, conversation starters, and a shared journaling section after each devotion.
Heart to Heart: A Mother-Daughter Devotional With 50 Devotions for Teen Girls is for teenage girls ages 13-20. It includes 50 devotions, each with a shared journaling section to help moms and daughters connect through writing. This is a great book for moms who want to communicate about awkward topics—like dating, purity, peer pressure, and more—but don’t know where to start. We will help you!
Multitudes of mothers, daughters, mentors, and younger women are being transformed by these books! You can buy them as paperbacks or get your free Kindle Unlimited eBooks on Amazon right here.
