Interrupted

A man with an even less pronounceable name than myself (Mihaly Csilszenmihalyi) made it his work to study flow states. Flow happens when you fully immerse yourself in what you are doing and are fully engaged in that activity. Csikszentmihalyi studied artists who persevere through their hunger because they are in a flow state (Sutton, 2025). It seems to me there is a lot of work on developing a sense of focus on tasks because we believe in the good of flow and yet live with smart phones that deliver a constant stream of entertainment, advertisements and connectivity. I have personally read a little of the literature that argues for us to defend our attentions and cultivate a sense of flow and focus that we can immerse ourselves in, but I have bone to pick with that idea generally. I think that attention to the ideas of focus and flow are good, but there something else very important here.

I have lived through two college undergraduates degrees, picking up a smattering of Biblical Hebrew. I have learned to play some basics in guitar and have read a moderate amount of the pile of books I am working through. Although there is much I have learned through focus study, my more recent experiences of becoming a husband, father, and a social worker have turned my moments of focus and flow from books and things more towards people. If I try to read too early in the evening before others go to sleep, I will likely be redirected towards what my toddler is doing. If I try to write a support letter at work, I will likely be interrupted by a Teams message or a request from a patient.

I think there is a lot of happiness to be found in the flow of a good task, but I wonder how much value we might lose by failing to find meaning in our interruptions.

Sometimes I feel disheartened by watching as my toddler pulls the bookmark out of the book I’m reading and lose sight of the fun my toddler is having with that bookmark as her new toy. Sometimes I forget that I am fully capable of finding my place again in said book.

I have learned a lot from a few different examples of people who have found meaning in being interrupted.

One significant example of people who embrace interruptions as meaningful are emergency department healthcare workers. I just finished watching the latest episode of The Pitt. I’m not going to spoil anything, but I did want to say something about emergency departments and healthcare workers in general from The Pitt and my own work as a social worker in primary care. The whole concept of triaging patients leads there to be patients who take presidency over others as they present to the ED because of more urgent and possibly life threatening illness or injury. The queue at the waiting room and the paramedics bring a steady stream of patients whose varying levels of need compete for intervention. This requires doctors, nurses, social workers, medical office assistants, technicians, and so on to ride the waves of their work with a balance between being focussed and open to interruptions.

I should also mention here an experience I had at my church. Last Sunday as I was serving with music for the service, the pastor and other church members shared some things that they learned on a missions trip that they went on. The missions trip involved this lovely group of North Americans flying out to the Philippines to meet a lovely community living on Boracay Island. They presented VBS to some of the children in the community, guilt homes, and learned some valuable lessons in serving those people. The pastor introduced the presentations saying “grace is not an abstract concept”, which I loved. This allowed me to reflect on how these missionaries were experiencing grace in a very tangible way as they showed the love of Jesus to these people. One of the missionaries shared about giving to people and the value saw in serving as a team: “you are not meant to do everything, but you are meant to do something. You are meant to do it together.” Another shared about being witness to some of the barriers that these people faced. They also shared about how hot the weather was. I realized the interruption that this must have been to their usual lives. Being surrounded by poverty interrupted the flow of their typical schedule and put them in a place to serve. One missionary commented on how their faith in Jesus enriched the experience: “you through His poverty might become rich.”

This leads me of course to the master of interruptions: Jesus Christ, our humble Lord. Some pastors talk about how Jesus withdrew to desolate places to pray and connect to the Father. They want to encourage people to rest more and get away from distractions of phone and busyness. I agree with the encouragement in the context of love. I think that you can experience a day of rest on Saturday without being open to the guidance of the Spirit. Bob Goff goes the opposite direction and reminds his readers of how Jesus was constantly interrupted and this led to beautiful moments of healing, forgiveness, and redemption. I think Jesus found a beautiful rhythm of withdrawing from the crowd to connect to God and entering the crowd to show God’s love. Being aware of the limits of flow and the beauty of interruptions changes my life and shows me new ways to grow as a disciple.

I hope and pray that you find meaning in your interruptions and find space to see them as openings to God’s good and varied grace. I hope that you steward interruptions well.

References

Jeremy Sutton, 2025 in Positive Psychology on Flow: https://positivepsychology.com/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-father-of-flow/

Bob Goff on the Holy Post podcast, 2026: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-holy-post/id591157388?i=1000755938523

Renew Church, 2026: https://www.youtube.com/live/3T0VblphIek?si=yz5s_4gvX6FhTi5H

Things I’m reading now or have read recently and may want to add thoughts about here in the future

The Whole Brain Child, Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson, 2011

The Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien, 1955

The First Nation Version of the New Testament, Terry Wildman, 2021

Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I?, Tim Keller, 2022