Last year Teresa, Cecilia and I took a wonderful vacation to the North Carolina mountains; but, it almost was not so wonderful. In anticipation of our trip, I contacted my cell phone service provider to make sure that I would get coverage where we were going. The really nice lady on the other end of the phone assured me that this would not be a problem in any way. However, once we arrived at our destination, none of us could get a signal - no phone coverage, no email, no text message service - nothing. I was not happy, to say the least. To make matters worse, I had no recourse. There was no way to communicate our dilemma to our service provider. Fortunately, Teresa, being the spiritual one, discerned that perhaps this was a God-thing. After all, we were on vacation. God had called us away to be together, to enjoy a break from the regular duties of life and to rest. It was sort of what you could call a Divine interruption. God had interrupted my plan and replaced it with a completely different circumstance that would be much better. It was just hard to see it that way; that's all. I wanted my phone. I wanted cell service. I wanted.

How do you handle Divine interruptions? Some of us get stressed. Others get upset, and some get undone. But, it is like a dear friend taught me years ago: when life gets difficult, you can either get bitter or you can get better. You get to choose. We can let the circumstance dictate our reaction or we can stop and remember that God loves us, cares for us, is keenly aware of the situation and can use it for our good.

As I said, Teresa was the first to see God at work in the no phone zone we were in. She had the nerve to suggest that this was actually a good thing. There would now be no cell interruptions to conversations, no rude "Blackberry prayers" being offered at the dinner table and no constant checking of messages to make sure we were not missing out on something. In fact, she suggested that perhaps God had allowed this circumstance to make sure that we did not miss out on something He had planned for us. She had a point. And, it ended up being one of the best times together that we had had in a long time.

Bitter or better. We get to choose.

See you on Sunday.

Terrell