The Apple watch is life-changing! It helps you manage your life in various ways. The Apple watch can track every step you take to 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, and you can even send your heartbeat as measured by the Apple watch. These are just a few features.

As human beings, we like order, and we like control. 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, as if we needed the daily uncertainties of life to confirm that truth. The fact is, 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 natural inconveniences may really be opportunities in the spiritual realm. 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.

A case in point is the Apostle Paul’s journey to Rome in Acts 27 and 28.

Following Paul’s testimony before Festus and Agrippa in Caesarea in Acts 26, the apostle was placed with other prisoners on a boat and began a journey to Rome, where would testify before  Caesar. After being transferred to another ship in Myra, a port town located in modern day Turkey, he continued his trek. 

“And when it was decided that we should sail to Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to one named Julius, a centurion of the Augustan Regiment. So, entering a ship of Adramyttium, we put to sea, meaning to sail along the coasts of Asia. Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, was with us. And the next day we landed at Sidon. And Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him liberty to go to his friends and receive care. When we had put to sea from there, we sailed under the shelter of Cyprus, because the winds were contrary. And when we had sailed over the sea which is off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia. There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing to Italy, and he put us on board” (Acts 27:1-6).

In the remainder of Acts 27, things became very interesting! Soon after setting sail from Myra, the weather began wreaking havoc, putting the boat and men on the boat in peril. The captain ignored Paul’s warning of impending doom, continuing to sail. It so happened the weather worsened to the point of the men losing all hope of being saved. Amid the tumult, Paul witnessed to the men and said they would all be saved. They were all spared when the boat shipwrecked at the island of Malta, and the men make it to land!

The tempest was not an interruption, but an opportunity for Paul! 

He spent the next three months ministering the gospel in Malta:

“Now when they had escaped, they then found out that the island was called Malta. And the natives showed us unusual kindness; for they kindled a fire and made us all welcome, because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold. But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. So when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live.” But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.  However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god. In that region there was an estate of the leading citizen of the island, whose name was Publius, who received us and entertained us courteously for three days. And it happened that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and dysentery. Paul went in to him and prayed, and he laid his hands on him and healed him. So when this was done, the rest of those on the island who had diseases also came and were healed” (Acts 28:1-9).

To express the impact of their ministry, Luke recorded 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 me, 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 really be opportunities in disguise.

I remember walking out of the post office in the middle of a busy day, when 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 wished. 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 cannot 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…

A man’s heart 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 that 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).