Chocolate Milk Moments

“It is a strange fact that Christians and even ministers frequently consider their work so important and urgent that they will allow nothing to disturb them….but it is part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service and that we do not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.” ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Someone once told me that you know that you are on the verge of a breakdown when you begin to think that what you do is terribly important. I didn’t fully understand what he meant until I was confronted with chocolate milk late one Saturday evening.

You see, very early in my ministry while I was still in seminary, I had experienced one of those weeks filled with interruption after interruption…all of which were very important, but together had left me with absolutely no time to prepare a sermon. As a result, Saturday evening found me secluded in my bedroom feverishly working to do just that. As the evening wore on I found myself more and more frustrated, unable to discern what I felt like God was leading me to preach about. It was about that time that I heard a familiar knock on my bedroom door, accompanied by Megan’s voice asking if she could come in. As I walked over to the door weary and disgruntled, I prepared a short lecture in my mind to share with Megan about the importance of the privacy that I needed in order to finish my sermon work that evening…a lecture that was abruptly cancelled when I opened the door to find Megan standing there with two glasses of chocolate milk.

“Dad,” she said, “I know that you’ve had a really tough week and I thought that you might need some chocolate milk to help make things better.” Right then and there, Megan and I sat down and had what might still be the best chocolate milk that I’ve ever had.

It is interesting, isn’t it…the way that we often react to life’s interruptions, as if what we do is so incredibly important that nothing is worthy of interfering with it. The truth is that life’s greatest blessings are often found in the Chocolate Milk Moments…those moments in which God places someone or something in our path to help remind us that there is more to life than the tasks with which we have consumed ourselves. The next time that you find yourself faced with an interruption, take a moment and enjoy what you’ve just been blessed with. If you do, you may just find a little bit of unexpected chocolate milk!