If God is willing. We wake up each morning and have no idea what the day will bring, because sometimes our plans get turned upside-down and inside - out. It all depends on what God plans for us. Sometimes we enjoy the interruption. Sometimes we're aggravated. Other times, we're very upset.
You might get a sudden frantic call that a grand-child has missed the bus and needs a ride to school. Or a relative has taken ill and needs a ride to a Doctor's appointment or emergency room. Or you're on the way to work, your car is rear-ended, and you're spending the morning talking to a police officer and exchanging insurance information with a driver who swears he got blinded by the rising sun. Or a friend calls you in the evening and wants to talk right in the middle of your favorite T.V. program.
Every time our life veers off course, we have a choice: we can stay preoccupied and frustrated because we can't accomplish what we planned to accomplish, or we can "stay in the moment" and find out what opportunities it brings. What a nice opportunity to visit with a grand-child on the way to school. Or to relish comforting and taking care of a loved ill relative. Nobody enjoys a car accident. But what an opportunity to learn patience and fortitude.
Which is why I make it a habit to say a Deacon friend's prayer to God each morning: "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening." This Scriptural prayer reminds me that I live not to follow through on MY plans each day, but to listen to God so I will follow through on GOD'S plans for me every new day. And as willingly as possible!
And I try to be thankful for all the interruptions God sends me - all the PEOPLE who provide the interruptions. Because all the unexpected situations and people provide the freshness, the newness, the challenges, joy, energy, and growth which God is offering me. If I only listen. If I'm really present to what is happening. Even during the unpleasant and frightening times.
Thankfulness can come more easily to us in every situation if we remember "to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of the other." (Pope Francis.) When Moses came nearer to look more closely at the Burning Bush, His God within the Bush told him "Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground." (Exodus 3:5.) How thankful we would be if every time something unexpected throws off our plans, we would remember that these new events are holy ground, because they contain God within them. These people entering unexpectedly into our lives - friends, relatives, strangers, - are holy ground because God lives within them.
The more we approach each event in our lives as holy ground, the more closely we will pay attention to what is truly happening: the look on another's face; the crack in another's voice; the changes happening in our life and another's life; the life-changing conversations that can happen if we are open to another's heart, another's joy or pain. The wonderful creator of fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen, said "If you looked down to the bottom of my soul, you would understand fully the source of my longing and - pity me. Even the open, transparent lake has its unknown depths, which no divers know."
God trusts us with every moment He gives us. He trusts us to offer Him ourselves as instruments of love, peace, joy, and understanding for the unexpected people and situations which He chooses for us to encounter. The holy ground He offers for us to enter. If we walk willingly, thankful for His gifts, listening to His Voice, God will lead us, like Moses, across the Red Sea of our fears and frustrations and interruptions into new inner freedom.