We often want God to intercede or intervene in difficult situations, but what if God’s grace is actualized through something disruptive?  Maybe it is a question, an unusual encounter or an unresolved circumstance.  Could such disruption jolt us out of our comfort zones and into new ways of living out our faith?

The themes of the Lenten season are intended to create an awakening, even if that awakening creates something unsettled within us.  Temptation, confession, repentance, sacrifice and mortality challenge us to depend less on ourselves and more on the mercy of God. Such disruption can be found in the statement by Jesus which says: “If you want to be my disciple, you must take up your cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16: 24)

Jesus had many encounters in which the people he met were amazed and bewildered. Some have famous names like Nicodemus and Lazarus. Others are unnamed like the woman at the well and the man who was blind from birth. In each instance, the disruption by Jesus led to ultimate transformation.  

What if this same kind of divine disruption is being offered to us?