In an earlier posting on “Projects, concentration and multitasking” I commented on the problem of interruptions and how they affect our concentration.
I mentioned the importance of having a “both-and” mentality. Interruptions are not necessarily bad, they just need to be managed wisely. The following comments, which I ran across last week, highlight the flip side of the picture,
It’s not possible to schedule all of our lives (nor should we try). And so there is no misunderstanding: I’m not dependent upon my schedule. My dependence rests upon God himself.
The unexpected will arise each day, needs will emerge that we did not anticipate, and situations that we could not foresee will require our attention.
We should not be surprised by apparent interruptions to our schedule. These are part of God’s purpose and plan for our lives. As C.S. Lewis so wisely noted:The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s “own,” or “real” life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life—the life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one’s “real life” is a phantom of one’s own imagination. This at least is what I see at moments of insight: but it’s hard to remember it all the time (The Quotable Lewis (Wheaton, IL.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1989), 335.)
