Mark 10:17 "And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, 'Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'" This is the rich young man who was following all the commandments, but who goes away full of sorrow when he hears the next step - to give up his worldly possessions and follow Christ. (Mark 10:21-22)

Note how Jesus stops everything to give this man his full attention. How many times am I getting ready to walk out the door, or in the middle of work, or doing something else that requires my presence or my attention, or both, when the phone rings, or I get a text from a friend in need, or a family member remembers something they wanted to talk to me about? I often get so frustrated when this happens! "Why couldn't they have come to me an hour ago when I was free?" I think to myself. I have to admit, I used to put people off in these situations. I would ask if we could talk later, and I'm certain that my frustration at their bad timing was evident.

I have been learning (often the hard way!) that this is not good for my relationships and it is not a Christian way of behaving. One day when reading C.S. Lewis, I came across his struggle with this same thing. He wrote that he came to see these interruptions as actually the point of our lives, they are the things that God is asking us to pay attention to. God has given us the entire day as a pure gift, when He sends just one, or even several, interruptions, asking for our attention, those are our opportunities for charity and grace. We can put them off, and go on with what we thought was the most important thing for us to do in that moment, but if we do we are losing a wonderful opportunity to be Christian. We see in this interaction with the rich young man how Jesus treats people people, and how we should. Jesus was getting ready for a journey, He did not expect to stop and have a discussion with a stranger, but He took the time to do so nonetheless. People are never annoying to Jesus, they are always treated as His beloved children. He even stopped while carrying His Cross to console the grieving women!

Jesus was always thinking of others, even in the most important times of His life. If I cannot do the same when I'm interrupted on my way to the grocery store, then I am not being truly Christian. As I have tried to live this, I have found that when I stop what I am doing to give people my attention, there is always time to accomplish the task that I thought was so important. Further, my attention and mind are then free to devote fully to that task, without being diverted with guilty thoughts for putting someone off, or worries about what might be bothering the person who needed me. So I will keep trying to see the interruptions of life as the most important things, the opportunities to love others when they need it the most.

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The great thing is, if one can, to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions in one’s “own” or “real” life. The truth is, of course, that what one regards as interruptions are precisely one’s life.  ~ C.S. Lewis