The Apple Watch is life-changing! It helps you manage your life in various ways. The Apple Watch can: track every step you take; manage your physical activity; monitor your diet; serve as a day-timer; check your investments; and even enhance interpersonal communication – for example, you can draw out a small doodle to send to one of your contacts, send an animated emoji character, or you can even send your heartbeat as measured by the Apple Watch. And these are just a few features. Wowzer!
As human beings, we like order and we like control. And the Apple Watch fits those desires like hand in glove…or in this case – watch on hand!
While the Apple Watch may manage your existing circumstances, it is unable to control them. This control is under the sovereign hand of almighty God. In reality, it is He who is managing the events of man. For history is ‘His Story.’
Interruptions that may appear to be inconveniences in the natural may actually be opportunities in the spiritual. How so? Well, the Lord has a singular ability to place us in the right place at the right time in order to be witnesses for Him.
Case in Point – the Apostle Paul’s journey to Rome in Acts 27 & 28.
Following Paul’s testimony before Festus and Agrippa in Caesarea in Acts 26, the Apostle is placed with other prisoners on a boat and begins a journey to Rome, where he is to face Caesar. (Acts 27:1-5). After being transferred to another ship in Myra (Acts 27:6), a port town located in modern day Turkey, he continues his trek.
In the remainder of Acts 27, things get very interesting! Soon after setting sail from Myra, the weather begins wreaking havoc, putting the boat and men on the boat in peril. The captain ignores Paul’s warning of impending doom, continuing to sail. It so happens the weather worsens to the point of the men losing all hope of being saved. Amidst the tumult, Paul witnesses to the men and says they’ll all be saved. They are spared when the boat shipwrecks at the island of Malta and the men make it land!
The tempest was not an interruption to, but an opportunity for Paul!
You see, he spends the next 3 months ministering the gospel in Malta (Acts 28:1-10). To grasp the impact of their ministry, Luke records these words upon their leaving for Rome:
They also honored us in many ways; and when we departed, they provided such things as were necessary. (Acts 28:10)
To be sure, the honor and glory would ultimately be given to the Lord Jesus – the one who “causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
For you and I, how do we respond to interruptions? No doubt, some of us deal with them better than others. Yet, when we look through the eyes of faith, sometimes those so-called interruptions may actually be opportunities in disguise.
Just last week, as I was walking out of the post office in the middle of my busy day, a middle-aged man looked at me. Wearing a backpack and holding a cane, he asked me for some money so he could get something to eat.
Since I had no cash, I told him I would buy him a sandwich if he wanted. He said that would be nice. During our drive to Subway, Brian shared his story of being homeless for the first time in his life. I asked him about his spiritual condition. He said he was a believer. I prayed for him in the car, bought him a meal and gave him a bible. He was encouraged…and so was I!
I’m reluctant to tell that story, because other times in facing that same kind of situation, I’m frankly ‘too busy’ to deal with it, and simply walk or drive past.
Now, I don’t own an Apple Watch. I prefer the cheapest watch I can find that has an alarm and stopwatch! But I know that any watch can not account for these kind of human interruptions – the opportunities God provides in the mystery of His providence.
As we follow the Lord, we must be flexible enough to know that there is a plan A and sometimes a plan B, but most certainly there is always a Plan G – God’s plan. Because “the mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)
The reality for us is that sometimes those opportunities to be witnesses for Jesus in word and deed are veiled in apparent interruptions. Acknowledging this potential reality, may we commit our way to the Lord, asking Him to give us wisdom and discernment in such matters, for His Glory and for our testimony to others.
So, as we begin each day, remember – putting on a watch is fine, but putting on Christ is better!
“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” Romans 13:14
