Disruption

 

Disruption

 

What if your calling put you at odds with your whole world? What if God’s will in you seemed like a kick in the face of all you had been told, raised in and led to believe? If you knew His call would leave you alienated and alone, estranged from your community, friends and even your family, would you still say yes? Yes to God?

Sometimes saying yes to God is saying no to safety, security, and the future you’d always thought you would have.

She was all alone this girl. Alone in the knowledge of what God had called her into.

Young. Inexperienced. Courageous.

Courage isn’t only for the strong. Sometimes it is the weakest, youngest and smallest that need it and possess it the most. Perhaps because they have little else to go on. Little else but courage. And the God of all the universe.

Mary. She had little else, and she gave Him all she had. While God formed silently within the safety of her womb she had to walk the painful and lonely path of awkward explanations, misunderstanding, potential divorce, scandal and public shame. Alone. With Him. Within.

She held nothing back. Like we often do. She gave everything. And it would cost her. Everything.

She said yes, and in so doing risked her life and dashed her reputation to the dirt. She could have been stoned to death under Jewish law if people didn’t believe her. And who would have believed her? Who was she? Just a simple country girl from the back waters of nowhere. Nothing good came from Nazareth. Nothing good would come from all this scandal… surely. 

But even in the midst of all the mess, God is still at work.

‘Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet…’ Matthew 1:18 

Joseph, though faithful to the law of God (that could have seen Mary stoned) was also faithful to the heart of God, and so…

“ did not want to expose her to public disgrace, 

he had in mind to divorce her quietly.’

 Matthew 1:18 

Even in the mess and lack of resolution, God is working. And will be working further.

Never think that just because it’s hard, complicated, embarrassing or difficult that it’s not the will of God or His calling on your life. Human approvable is almost never a sign that God is with us. Actually, often it’s the opposite. 

God with us cannot be squashed into a comfortable Sunday morning box. God is the great disrupter, and His presence will spill over everywhere and make a big mess of all our plans, our expectations and our reputation. Our whole lives. 

‘This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about…’ A divine disruption. 

Will you allow God to disrupt your life this Christmas season?