My parents now live in Smoky Springs, a retirement home here in Gainesville, GA. Some of the residents are spry and alive. But many of them have checked out. Life for them is measured by the distance between lunch and dinner. Their mental capacity is still good, but their experience has narrowed to something not unlike zoo animals.
Who can blame them? Old age is, they say, not for the faint of heart. It’s hard to see your faculties diminish year-by-year. In the face of pain, it is normal to seek comfort.
This is not an academic question. I turn 60 this year – people like me need to be thinking about the paths we will choose in the last third of our lives. How will we navigate in a society addicted to comfort and awash in resources?
To an extent we are pre-programmed to do what everyone else does – to respond according to the norms culture gives us. We grow up living in the narrow realm of our own experience and relationships. The possibilities available to us are a subset of that small world. We get programmed to respond to stimuli in predefined ways. Culture is our operating system.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can build a back door in our operating system by learning the habit of interruptibility.
The interruptible person lives in the present, in liminal space (where we make a conscious choice instead of merely reacting), and is available to consider the questions and needs of others. They recognize that their own experience is limited and their true needs are few. Interruptions may actually be the mechanism through which God speaks to them.
God wants to set us free from our small world and our limited thinking. But most of us are not available to be interrupted. We’ve made choices and commitments based on comfort. We can be found living in a narrow range of possibilities.
God wants to invite us into kingdom living. He wants to invite us to partner with him to live as free sons and daughters. He may be speaking to you today, “Will you please speak to your brother? Will you seek reconciliation? Can I interrupt you?”
God may be asking you, “Will you run my errands?” Perhaps he’s whispering to you, but it’s hard for you to hear him. Are his whispers being drowned out by the noise in your life? And if you hear him, does your programming makes it hard to respond? Are you interruptible?
Four tests
Ask yourself these questions:
1. Can I hear the voice of the Lord?
2. Can God ask me to change my commitments?
3. Am I available to leave home on an assignment God gives me?
4. Do I regularly submit my plans to God and let him change them if he wants?
Loved the topic – and your thoughts on it. Thanks for sharing. So true.
Thanks, Mark. I actually first got this concept when I was staying at your house – and then shared it with the group of friends that you had invited over.
I love how interruptible you are. Your trip to Uganda last year was a good example of that.
Profound.
I just went through this with my mom. She changed so much. She doubted her salvation and insisted on being baptized again at 85. The whole experience was so bad. I told my sister we have to do something now so our children and grandchildren doesn’t go threw what we just we threw.
That’s good, Mary. Our perception dulls as we get older – we have to be able to access the perception of others we trust. It is essential that we learn to trust if we are to age with grace.
This is on point, Seth. Liminal space is a great term to learn, I just did. That’s truth that you wrote. Great post!
Thanks, Dre. I’m still learning and re-learning this lesson myself.
Oh this is one of your best Seth!
I believe God is constantly asking us to pay attention to the now of our lives that will certainly impact our days ahead and eternity.”The interruptible person lives in the present, in liminal space (where we make a conscious choice instead of merely reacting), and is available to consider the questions and needs of others.”
This is a great challenge for me today! I want to be a interruptible person. If it a profound daily choice for me. I just loved this insight today! Thank you!
You are welcome. Yes – the choice is profound for us all.
BTW, praying that God interrupts Mikia and connects her to deep grace.
Thanks Seth, just had Ravi here in Chiangmai read the “liminal” paragraph while asking him, “is that not me!?” I’m fully present and living in the moment,being INTERUPTIBLE is awesome. I am that way to a fault however so it has its liabilities and blind spots but it’s me and I’ll forever work it to HIS advantage.
” wherever you find yourself, be all there. And live to the hilt every situation you believe to be in the will of God.” J Elliot
That’s great, Matt. Let’s live to the hilt!
On a smaller scale than picking up and moving, I appreciate the daily interruptability that you walk in. I know that you’ll always stop what you’re doing to make time for me, and that means so much. Thanks for leading by example on this.
it’s easy w/ you, Bill.
Hey Seth,
Thank you so much for this blog. Comfort addiction, as you’ve put it, I would go so far as to say is a spiritual epidemic that gets folks with SO MUCH TO OFFER, out of the game and onto the sidelines as spectators. Dr. Henry Cloud wrote a book called, “The Power of the Other” and methinks that it will take relationship with another to help folks get back “in the game” and off of the sidelines. Definitely starts with baby steps but that’s movement in the right direction…
Many blessings…thankful for your wisdom, brother.
Mark
That’s good – and that’s another reason why we need to live in community. We need to be interrupted by the needs and perspectives of others to take our eyes off ourselves.