Skip to main content

But how...

Tolkien reminded us, "Courage is found in unlikely places." For some of us, the holidays require a bit of 'mustered courage' on our parts. They are not something we look forward to - perhaps because of loneliness, family discord, or even a lack of hope things will ever change in this world. As much as we are frightened by the load we bear right now, I wonder if we could look at the 'load' Mary bore all those years ago and take note of her tremendous courage to do what no other has been called to do. She was called to bear the Christ child - to bring into this world the Son of God in earthly form - an unwed mother, conceiving by 'miraculous means', in a time when 'being with child' outside of wedlock would have meant immediate rejection and disgrace. I don't doubt Mary had some significant moments of fear as she faced the Angel Gabriel that day - alone, visited by a heavenly presence, told she had been chosen. In fact, scripture tells us Gabriel almost immediately responded to her fear with the words, “Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus. He will be great, be called ‘Son of the Highest.’ The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; He will rule Jacob’s house forever—no end, ever, to his kingdom.” (Luke 1:29-33) I think I might have shot back with, "That's easy for YOU to say!" She responded with words that suggested she might have wanted to understand more: "But how..." The most amazing thing about us standing right smack in the middle of our doubt is that God isn't afraid of our 'but how' moments. In fact, he knows it is our way of coming to terms with what it is he is asking us to do!

As the story goes on, we are told Mary 'wasted no time' in accepting what God was doing in her life - in spite of all the fear of her being rejected and shamed for her condition of 'being found to be with child'. Courage is indeed found in unlikely places. In the moment of asking the 'but how' question, Mary was coming to terms with this calling on her life. She was presented with the impossible then reminded immediately that nothing is impossible with God. There are times when we want to understand and still don't, no matter how many times we ask the 'but how' question. "But how will my family ever heal from this loss?" "But how will we ever mend this riff in the relationship?" "But how will I put one foot in front of the other when I feel so much darkness around me?" As we ask those questions, even when we repeat them because we don't think God has answered us or given us enough information, he is urging us to embrace his courage in place of our fears, doubts, and deep emotional regrets. It may indeed be tough to face the holidays, but God's plan is for us to embrace his grace - allowing that grace to bolster our courage until we stand strong in the midst of what otherwise would cause us great distress. God isn't 'put off' by us asking 'but how' - in fact, he realizes this is a natural response to things we don't understand. We may not get the visitation of a mighty angel like Gabriel, but we have much more - we have the very presence of God within us. The 'but how' is already within us! Just sayin!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What did obedience cost Mary and Joseph?

As we have looked at the birth of Christ, we have considered the fact he was born of a virgin, with an earthly father so willing to honor God with his life that he married a woman who was already pregnant.  In that day and time, a very taboo thing.  We also saw how the mother of Christ was chosen by God and given the dramatic news that she would carry the Son of God.  Imagine her awe, but also see her tremendous amount of fear as she would have received this announcement, knowing all she knew about the time in which she lived about how a woman out of wedlock showing up pregnant would be treated.  We also explored the lowly birth of Jesus in a stable of sorts, surrounded by animals, visited by shepherds, and then honored by magi from afar.  The announcement of his birth was by angels - start to finish.  Mary heard from an angel (a messenger from God), while Joseph was set at ease by a messenger from God on another occasion - assuring him the thing he was about to do in marrying Mary wa

A brilliant display indeed

Love from the center of who you are ; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply ; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. (Romans 12:9-12) Integrity and Intensity don't seem to fit together all that well, but they are uniquely interwoven traits which actually complement each other. "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." God asks for us to have some intensity (fervor) in how we love (from the center of who we are), but he also expects us to have integrity in our love as he asks us to be real in our love (don't fake it). They are indeed integral to each other. At first, we may only think of integrity as honesty - some adherence to a moral code within. I believe there is a little more to integrity than meets the eye. In the most literal sense,

Do me a favor

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (Philippians 2:1-4) Has God's love made ANY difference in your life? What is that difference? Most of us will likely say that our lives were changed for the good, while others will say there was a dramatic change. Some left behind lifestyles marked by all manner of outward sin - like drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, or even thievery. There are many that will admit the things they left behind were just a bit subtler - what we can call inward sin - things like jealousy,