Be Ready to be Interrupted

I've been slowly re-reading Bonhoeffer's Life Together over the past few weeks, and just encountered this admonition:

We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps -- reading the Bible. When we do that we pass by the visible sign of the Cross raised athwart our path to show us that, not our way, but God's way must be done.

I've only been here a little more than two months, but I've already developed plans and even, in many cases, such a tight schedule that when something interrupts, I'm quickly put-off. I wish I could say that I've acquired a deeper mindfulness of others while among my brothers and sister here in the East, but sadly my German-rootedness (not rudeness, but rooted-ness) still seems to be quite dominant in my fixing objectives for each day that too often leave little room for anything or anyone who is not "on the schedule."

Life is not smoother when you allow for interruptions -- you may find yourself walking across campus (as I did yesterday) only to hear your name being called by a student running up to you from behind. He then follows on closely the entire way to your office all the while throughout the course of your journey peppering you with questions about his future interests in international human rights advocacy.

Then, continuing his inquiries, he remains engaged in conversation with you for nearly as long as you had thought it would take to complete the composition of the exam you are scheduled to give to your Survey of American Law students later in the week. So, rather than completing that exam-writing task you had on your personal docket for the afternoon, you pray you have encouraged your young aspiring human rights advocate and hopefully have offered him some helpful advice.

Many of my good and faithful friends back in the States frequently remind me that: "You need to say 'no' more often." And, while I will grant the wisdom of that rebuke when it comes to requests for my participation in administrative task forces, academic committee-work or even some ministry invitations (usually delivered on short-notice), I'm finding that when I seek to be fulfilling the call to teach, I need to be evermore mindful of brother Bonhoeffer's instruction: Allow yourself to be interrupted.