I like to get things done. You probably do, too.

Perhaps, if you’re like me, you like to get things done so much that you approach every day of the week with a list of tasks you want to accomplish. And, if in the midst of working through that list you happen to do something that wasn’t on there, you add that item to the bottom for the feeling of accomplishment that comes with marking it off.

Nothing wrong with that. Or at least I don’t think there is. Nothing wrong with organizing your day, working methodically through it, and wanting to have a record at the end of what you were able to get done. In fact, doing so is really an act of stewardship – of trying to make sure you are making the most of the time you have been given. So done in the right spirit, it is actually a very spiritual thing to operate according to agenda items and to-do lists.

Problem is, God is not bound by my to-do list. And following Jesus on a daily basis means holding that to-do list very, very loosely.

Take a single chapter of Scripture from the gospels like Mark chapter 5 as an example. Jesus and His followers travel across the Sea of Galilee to the region of the Gerasenes. No sooner do they get out of the boat, when they are interrupted by a crazy, unkempt, dangerous, social outcast of a man who lived among the dead.

Jesus has mercy on the man and cast the demons out of him into a nearby herd of pigs, restoring this man to his right mind. Then he’s interrupted again by a crowd of people, begging him to leave their region, so back in the boat they go.

Jesus and His disciples make their landing on the other side of the sea and they are interrupted again by a large crowd of people, presumably seeking His teaching and healing. But before He can begin to minister among them, He’s interrupted again by a synagogue ruler named Jairus who fell at His feet begging that He come with him and heal his daughter.

Jesus agrees and begins to follow the man, when He’s again interrupted by the crowd pressing in on Him, clawing and grabbing, all seeking something from Him. This interruption is interrupted by a single woman who crept up silently behind Jesus and touched the hem of His garment, and she is healed from an affliction that had lasted over a decade. Jesus pauses at this interruption to clarify what had happened, when He’s interrupted again by some from Jairus’ house, giving the terrible news that the little girl had died during all the interruptions.

It’s interruption after interruption after interruption. Interruptions by crowds, by outcasts, by diseases, by grief – always an interruption. And yet nowhere in this passage do we have any indication that Jesus was put off, annoyed, or otherwise inconvenienced by any o these infringements on His personal schedule.

Now you could argue that Jesus was not actually interrupted by these things; these incidents were the whole reason He was there to begin with. He knew they were coming, and these interruptions were actually His to-do list. But what if you were one of the disciples following Him? And what if you had your own to-do list of good, right things? I can imagine that it might be frustrating, just as it still is today.

We have things to do, and we are interrupted by someone in the office. Or an unexpected phone call. Or a request from someone in need. And to tend to all those things requires us to put aside the priorities we’ve already sketched out for ourselves on a daily basis. And in those moments we find that God is not bound by our to-do list; He has His own. And if we are following Jesus, we must die to ourselves which includes our plans of daily accomplishments.

So what do we do with this truth? Do we stop making lists? Do we stop trying to accomplish all that needs to be done every day?

Not at all.

Instead, we do these two things:

1. We remind ourselves that our worth is not in our accomplishments. 

This is, in truth, one of the reasons we are all so committed to our lists. It’s not because of what we get done; it’s because of how they make us feel. Smart. Responsible. Accomplished. Worthy. But the final expression of all those things is not in our ability to get our tasks done, but rather in the fact that Jesus has died for us.

2. We expect interruptions as we build the list.

One of the problems that we, the guild of list-makers, have is that we tend to put too much on our list every day. So what if we started expecting that there would be an unknown opportunity to follow Jesus in compassion, sacrifice, or generosity every day, and we left some room for it instead of jam-packing our schedules? Surely this is an act of faith – it’s proactively planning for good works that God has planned for us ahead of time. We know they will come; we just don’t know exactly what they will be.

So don’t be frustrated, list-makers. Instead, rejoice in the opportunities to follow Jesus in the cracks of your schedule. And plan ahead of time, expecting those opportunities to come.