Interrupted by God

“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. . . . It is a strange fact that Christians and even ministers frequently consider their work so important and urgent that they will allow nothing to disturb them. They think they are doing God a service in this, but actually they are disdaining God’s “crooked yet straight path.”

 -Dietrich Bonhoeffer  Life Together,

 When I first heard these words read in our last gathering, my immediate reaction was “Wait, stop. Can you please read that again?” And when I went back to read it for myself, all of the other words on the page blurred and I would have to blink, shake my head and read it over again.

It had a jarring effect on my thinking. It forced me to ask myself; What are the “important tasks, plans or work”, that I may be so busy carrying out that I‘m way out on Route 35 cruising along in the fast lane and completely missed the East exit to the road God had marked out?

I began to think of all of my agendas, especially the ones where I sincerely believed that I was “doing God’s work.” It was like mission with an outcome; if I do A and B, then C will happen. I also began to see the things in my life that I wasn’t too keen on having interrupted, because in my eyes, they were working, or were a “good thing”.

 It reminded me of a study I recently heard of that was done at Princeton University in the early 1970’s. Two behavioral scientists who were studying the psychology of prosocial behavior, wanted to examine Why people do good things for others?

They conducted their study among the Theological Seminary Students. The participants were each instructed to prepare a brief talk about the Good Samaritan from the Bible. As many of us are aware, this is a story of how a wounded and beaten traveler lying on the side of the road was negligently avoided by three holy men.

The students were then told to walk to a nearby building to give their sermon. Some were given plenty of time to get there and some were put under a time constraint. Yet to get to the building, the students had to walk through an alley way in which a fellow participant was disguised as a sick man in need of help. Now, the alley way was narrow, only four feet across, so in order not to help this man, a person would have to step over him.

 The results of the study are both shocking and ironic; only 40% of the students actually stopped to help the stranger.

However, these were theology students, who you would expect to have Christian social morals and obligations, and they had been studying the Good Samaritan for the last few days!

 This study proves how often we are so preoccupied with our own agendas, even with the perceived sincerity of carrying out “God’s work” that we may be missing God altogether; His Spirit drowned out by the cacophony of our own noise. I am not proposing that we stop everything we are doing and resort to doing nothing at all, but I have definitely been reevaluating how much time I spend actually listening to God with a quiet heart. This quiet listening has drawn me closer into the light of “being” rather than the frenzy of doing. It’s allowed me to give over my carefully marked out calendar to God and practice presence and faith in each moment life presents.

Sophi Scholl -A life Lived for a Cause

Sophie Magdalena Scholl (1921-1943)

“The real damage is done by those millions who want to 'survive.' The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves—or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honor, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small. It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find you. But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn.”
― Sophie Scholl

This was written by my presiding role model, Sophie Scholl. She, along with her brother Hans Scholl and two other members of the White Rose movement, were martyred at the hands of the Nazis under the Hitler regime on February 22, 1943.

Rather than turn a blind eye to the atrocities of the Nazi government, Sophie, along with several other young university students, formed a movement known as the White Rose, thereby risking certain death. Through their boldly veracious writings, they hoped to open people’s eyes to the truth of what was being hidden from the world by a deceitful and corrupt government. Via pamphlets printed on a clandestine press, they distributed these writings throughout neighborhoods and across college campuses.

Their profound belief in their cause: to uncover the Truth--cost them their young lives; Sophie at only 21 years of age. Yet they died for a purpose far beyond themselves, testifying to truth and selfless courage in the face of evil.

I’ve often dreamed of having the audacious courage of Sophie Scholl; of being involved in an underground movement that assists in the dismantling of a corrupt government. However, I’ve come to understand that even if I’m not on the front line in the same way they were, I can participate in the same movement of truth and courage. It may not mean the guillotine as it did for Sophie, but it will cost me my comfort and control. I may not be living under the Nazi regime, but I live in a world of injustice and corruption, ruled by a government with the same propensity for promulgating hate between people, a government in which love and the human spirit often seem of little consequence.

So, are not Sophie Scholl’s words just as pertinent in our society today? How many of us choose the reductionist approach to life? We just want to “survive” or be “left in peace” and “not want our little lives disturbed by anything bigger than ourselves.” We live in a society that caters to our every selfish need and desire, behind a facade of occasional good works. Good works are fine, just so long as certain parts of your life are not disrupted or disturbed. It is tragic to see how many beautiful spirits are—as Sophie put it--shrink-wrapped into tiny, self-isolating balls to keep them “safe” in a society that worships the elusive American Dream.

My words seem small compared to Sophie’s. But I read hers often as a timeless, and timely, witness to the purpose and meaning of life. Her actions leave me with a choice every day of which avenue I choose to walk down, and how I choose to burn.

The Whisper

In front of her laptop she sits alone
Silence in an empty home.
The chaotic life of a classroom teacher
Resorted now to online lecture.
Noise of students long since faded
Their absence she has always hated.

“Who am I?” a voice begins to say,
This virus stripped my life away.
The whisper comes but quietly,
That life was your identity.
It whispers deep inside her soul,
There’s something more that makes you whole.
The whisper lingers in the silence
Of a Heart.

He hangs his suit behind the door.
They closed all offices on his floor.
“Daddy come and play with us!”
At home his tie, superfluous.
No longer a dignified CEO,
A title his kids don’t even know.

“Who am I?” a voice begins to say,
This virus stripped my life away.
The whisper comes but quietly,
That life was your identity.
It whispers deep inside his soul,
There’s something more that makes you whole.
The whisper lingers in the silence.
Of a heart

Rows and rows of empty chairs,
His footsteps echo on the stairs.
A place where many people gathered,
Now separated, His people scattered.
He lingers in the empty space,
Afraid of the silence filling the place.

“Who am I?” a voice begins to say,
this virus stripped my life away.
The whisper comes but quietly,
That life was your identity.
It whispers deep inside his soul
There’s something more that makes you whole.
The whisper lingers in the silence
Of a heart

And in the silence of hearts the whisper speaks
To the absolute truth the whole world seeks.
The whisper crescendos on the wind
Into a shout borne by humankind,
Awakened to a new reality
Of what is of eternity.

Sunset over Lake Harriet May 15 2020