Ready For Interruptions - Simon Of Cyrene

A passerby named Simon, who was from Cyrene, was coming in from the countryside just then, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross.

Mark 15:21

One stressful afternoon, Bill received a phone call at his office from a close relative with a pressing spiritual need. “Later” wasn’t going to work. Instead of continuing to work, he took an hour out of his desperately busy day to talk to his relative about God’s love and salvation.

Bill’s willingness to be interrupted made a difference in his relative’s life . . . and in his eternity.

If you’re like most men, you are busy. Work, family, friends, and church all cry out for your time. It’s still important to be ready when God sends you an interruption for the good of another person.

A man named Simon faced that kind of interruption.

Jesus was alone in his suffering as he dragged his cross toward a hill outside the city of Jerusalem. Exhausted from a sleepless night and a morning of brutal treatment at the hands of his Roman tormenters, Jesus sank under the weight of his cross.

Into this scene of suffering and love stepped Simon, a Jewish pilgrim from the North African city of Cyrene (in present-day Libya).

When Simon started his day, he had no idea that he would play an important part in God’s plan to bring salvation to the world. Simon was one of hundreds of thousands of Jewish pilgrims who traveled to Jerusalem annually to honor God in the Passover celebration.

But God interrupted Simon’s plans.

The Roman centurion in charge of executions didn’t have time to wait for Jesus to gather enough strength to make it up the hill for his execution. He saw Simon in the crowd and conscripted him for the unpleasant job of carrying Jesus’ cross.

Simon carried a part of Jesus’ burden that morning that not even his disciples were around to carry. When he did that, he played a small but important part in Jesus’ story.

Are you ready and willing to bear the burdens God asks you to carry? Sometimes those burdens mean interruptions from everyday business. God blesses you richly when you are available to bear your part of the load, especially when it means changing your daily schedule.