When Disruption Interrupts Life

Written by Talita | Rosalita Atelier

Sometimes interruption is simply the moment we become willing to listen.

Life has a way of settling into familiar rhythms. We get up in the morning, attend to our responsibilities, care for the people around us, make plans and work towards the things we hope to accomplish. Days become weeks, and before we realise it, we have grown comfortable with the way things are.

There is something reassuring about that familiarity. We know what needs to be done and how to go about doing it. We have our routines, our ways of thinking and responding, and the things we have come to depend on. Over time, we can become so accustomed to these patterns that we seldom stop to consider what is shaping our thoughts and decisions.

Then something happens that interrupts it all.

It may be disappointment, a plan that falls apart, illness, the loss of someone we love, a relationship that changes or circumstances that leave us uncertain about what lies ahead. Things we had taken for granted suddenly require our attention, and questions we did not even know were there begin to surface.

Our family has experienced this kind of interruption. There have been moments when the life we knew changed in ways we would never have chosen. Looking back, I can see how some of those experiences caused me to examine things I had hardly given a second thought to before.

Before all of this happened, I genuinely believed I was doing well in my walk with the Lord. I loved talking about Him and sharing my faith with others. I never really questioned where I stood in my relationship with Him. It was only when life changed so unexpectedly that feelings, fears and questions began surfacing that I hadn't even known were there. I began to realise that some of the things I thought I believed about God were being challenged by the way I was responding to what we were going through.

One of the things I began to recognise was how easily we can drift while life is comfortable because disruption can stop us, make us notice and expose what was already happening in us and so expose the drift .

Drift is often quiet

I have found a warning in Hebrews 2:1 worth paying attention to:

“Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.”
Hebrews 2:1 (NKJV)

These words have become important to me because drift and attention seem to be deeply connected. When we stop paying attention, we can move without even realising we are moving.

The word drift describes something that can happen almost without our noticing. We become occupied with daily responsibilities, familiar habits and the many things competing for our attention. Gradually, we begin to rely on our own understanding and the ways we have always done things.

I have found that this can happen even while I am doing things I consider good and worthwhile. There have been times when I was reading my Bible, praying and carrying on with my responsibilities, yet I had become so familiar with certain truths that I was no longer allowing them to examine the way I lived.

I knew what I believed, or at least I thought I did, until I realised that we don't always know what we truly believe until it is tested in ways you never expected.

Somewhere in the middle of our family's disruption, I began asking questions I had not considered before. I started paying closer attention to the things I trusted, the way I responded when circumstances changed and how much of my understanding had been shaped by familiarity rather than by carefully considering what God had said.

What do I actually believe about God?

This has become one of the most important questions in my own walk with the Lord: What do I believe about God, and is it true? Closely connected to it is another question that I have found equally important: Why do I believe what I believe?

I began to realise how much our understanding of God's character influences the way we respond to Him.

When I returned to the account of Eve in Genesis 3, something stood out to me. The serpent began by questioning what God had said. Through that conversation, he introduced* doubt* about God's intentions towards her, suggesting that God might be withholding something good.

I found myself thinking about what happened in Eve's understanding before she made her choice. Her view of God was being challenged, and the question of whether He could be trusted had been raised. Before Eve reached for the fruit, her understanding of God was already being distorted. It made me consider how easily our own understanding of God can be influenced by the things we experience, the fears we carry and the opinions we have accepted over the years.

We may know the Scriptures and still carry ideas about God that have been shaped by disappointment, fear, past experiences or things we have heard from others. Those ideas influence how we interpret His Word and how we respond when He calls us to trust and obey Him.

If I believe that God is constantly disappointed in me, I may struggle to receive His correction. If I question His goodness, trusting Him with an uncertain outcome becomes difficult. If I have come to believe that everything depends on my own gifts, talents and efforts, I will find it hard to surrender the things I cannot control.

What we believe about God affects how we hear and trust Him, and that understanding influences the choices we make. I began to see how important it is to examine the picture of God I carry in my heart and to allow Scripture to correct the places where my understanding has become distorted.

I want to know Him as He has revealed Himself, and I want to remain willing to recognise where my own understanding needs to change.

Learning to listen

For many years, spending time with God meant reading my Bible, praying and studying Scripture. Those things remain precious to me, and I am grateful for the opportunities I have had to learn.

Over time, though, I began noticing how easily I could read something, agree with it and then continue with my day without giving much thought to how that truth should influence my life. I could understand a passage well enough to discuss it with someone else, while still struggling to apply it in my own circumstances.

This became especially clear when I began examining my responses during difficult moments. When I felt afraid, I had to consider what or who I was actually trusting. When things did not go according to plan, I began paying attention to what my reactions revealed. I also became more aware of how often I tried to take control of situations because I was uncomfortable with uncertainty.

These experiences have helped me recognise that listening requires a willingness to have our thinking corrected by what God has said in His Word. Sometimes that means acknowledging that an idea we have held for years may be wrong. At other times, it means recognising that we have understood something in Scripture but have resisted what obedience would require of us.

Listening is allowing truth to correct the lies, fears, assumptions and distorted ideas through which I have been seeing God. Through this correction, I am learning to worship Him, believe what He says and trust Him because of who He is not for what He can do for me. As my understanding of Him grow and changes, so does my response to Him in obedience.

I am still learning to approach God's Word with this kind of openness. There is much in my own understanding that needs to be examined, and I am grateful that the Lord continues to teach us as we follow Him.

Learning to remain

John 15 has become a particularly meaningful passage to me. Jesus speaks about the vine and the branches, and He calls His disciples to abide in Him. In verse 7 He says:

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you...”
John 15:7 (NKJV)

I have spent a great deal of time thinking about what it means to abide.

There is such a beautiful picture in the relationship between the vine and its branches. The branch receives its life from the vine, and the fruit it bears grows from that connection.

As I have considered this, I have become increasingly aware of my own tendency to measure progress by what I accomplish. I like to make plans, work towards something and see the results of my efforts. That way of thinking can easily find its way into my relationship with God too. I can become so occupied with what I think I should be doing for Him that I lose sight of the importance of remaining in Him.

Jesus' words have caused me to consider how I spend time in Scripture. I have been learning to remain with a passage for longer, returning to it throughout the week and thinking about how it relates to the ordinary circumstances of my life.

Sometimes a particular verse brings to mind a conversation I have had, a decision I need to make or an attitude I have been carrying. At other times, it reveals something about God's character that I need to understand more clearly. There are also moments when I realise that I have been resisting something I already know to be true.

Remaining with Scripture gives me the opportunity to consider these things prayerfully and respond to what the Lord is showing me. I am learning to carry what I have read into the rest of my day, allowing it to influence my thoughts, my conversations and the decisions I make.

This has become a meaningful part of learning to abide, and it is something I am still growing into.

Allowing what we hear to shape how we live

James 1:22 says:

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only...”
James 1:22 (NKJV)

This verse has become an important part of what I am learning.

I often think about how much knowledge we can gather through books, teachings, Bible studies and conversations. We have access to so much, and there is great value in learning from those whom God has gifted to teach.

I have had to consider what happens to the truth I have received once I close my Bible or put down a book, because the truth may have been heard, but has it been trusted? Does it influence the way I speak to my family, the decisions I make and the way I use my time? Is it evident in how I respond when I am disappointed, frustrated or afraid?

These ordinary moments have become important to me because they often reveal what I truly believe. I have begun to recognise that the things I say I believe about God should find expression in the way I live.

This is where the rhythm of Listen → Build → Make → Live began taking shape for me. It grew out of my desire to give more thoughtful attention to God's Word and to consider how what I was learning could become part of my everyday life.

Listening begins with Scripture and a willingness to hear what God* has* said. As I spend time considering what a passage reveals about Him, I also begin to recognise what it may be showing me about my own heart. From there, I think about how that truth should influence the way I build my life, including my priorities, responsibilities, relationships and the decisions I make.

What I have heard then needs to find expression in something practical. This is where making becomes part of the rhythm. It involves responding through the work of my hands, the use of my time and the opportunities God has entrusted to me. As those choices become part of everyday life, I begin to see how what I believe is shaping the way I live.

I find this helpful because I need to be reminded that obedience is lived out in the ordinary moments of our days. It is present in the way we care for others, fulfil our responsibilities, respond to difficulties and make decisions when nobody else is watching. I keep examining whether the truths I am learning stay on the page or are it becoming part of the way I actually live.

This is about closing the distance between what I say I believe and the way I live.

I know that I will continue learning this for the rest of my life. There are still many places where my responses reveal that I have more to understand and more to surrender.

When life has been interrupted

I have thought often about the circumstances that first brought these questions to the surface.

There are experiences in life that we would never willingly choose, and I am careful about attaching explanations to suffering when we do not know why something has happened. What I do know is that even though there was a time when I felt He had forgotten me, the Lord has been faithful to us through the uncertainties we have faced and are still facing. I cannot say that painful things did not happen, but He has brought healing to those experiences and strengthened us through difficult circumstances in ways I never imagined possible.

Somewhere along the way, I became more willing to examine the things I had been holding on to and the assumptions that had quietly shaped my understanding. I began to recognise places where fear had influenced my decisions, where I had relied too heavily on my own experiences and understanding, and where familiar ways of thinking needed to be brought back to the truth of Scripture.

It has been a humbling experience, and one that continues.

I think this is why the thought of drifting has stayed with me. It reminds me how important it is to pay attention to what we have heard and to remain teachable. It has also made me grateful for the opportunities we have to return to God's Word and allow Him to continue His work in our lives.

Perhaps you have experienced an interruption in your own life. You may still be trying to make sense of what has happened or what is still happening, or you may be looking back on a season that changed the way you see things.

I hope you will give yourself time to consider what those experiences have brought to the surface. The questions that have become so important to me may be worth considering in your own walk with the Lord.

What do I believe about God, and is it true? Why do I believe what I believe?

These questions have led me back to Scripture many times, and I suspect they will continue to do so, because what we believe about Him will eventually find its way into the lives we build and live.

Sometimes disruption exposes the drift we could not see while life was comfortable.

And perhaps, in that interruption, we become willing to listen again.

With love,

Talita
Rosalita Atelier