Simply praise

Many people begin each year choosing a word to focus on for the year, to learn more about, to look for, to grow in.  Anyone have a word for 2017… Maybe it’s a word that you are praying through…

Relief

Hope

Faith

Intentionality

This year my own word was something terribly profound:  the word, BUT.  Now let me explain.  I realize that might not be too impressive… so let me explain.  I have come to understand that so often we use the word but to negate something we’ve just said.  Think about…

I really like your dress, but I think it would better if it were green not blue.

The dinner was delicious, but I would have preferred chocolate cake as dessert.

You did a great job on this project, but there’s just one little problem.

Clay, you got 2 A’s this semester, but that C in Math isn’t so good.

The service was so worshipful today, but that last song was off.

So… for this year, I’ve really tried to replace the word but with the word so…

It just changed a negative turn… to, at least, a different thought.

So what?  Recently I've read through the accounts of Matthew and Luke about the birth of Jesus.  Always drawn to Luke… probably because of the familiarity, while trying to see the story with new, fresh eyes. 

Luke 1:28 reads,  "The angel went to her and said, Greeting, you who are highly favored.  The Lord is with you.  Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.."

She didn’t know what the greeting would mean.  I have to believe the Lord says the same words to us often… and we are also greatly troubled… because we don’t know what is coming… what He may be asking us to do… not in our own power… but in His.

The conversation with Gabriel continued with some details of what is to come…. Crazy details. 

So Mary responds with grace… I am the Lord’s servant.  May your words to me be fulfilled. 

So then… she really responds…beautifully, humbly with an overwhelming 9 verses of praise…

Can you see this scene:  Elizabeth says, “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her…  Cue the lights.  Dim everything except the spotlight on Mary.  Kinda like the scene in Charlie Brown… Linus… reciting Luke 2.

So even though she didn’t fully understand what was coming, she chose praise.  The next verse brings the lights back up with the words, Mary stay with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.

I can't claim to get inside her head, but I have to think Mary surely was "paused" by the sudden announcement she received. She did not ask for or seek this role in God's plans; God has simply stepped into her life and brought her into His service. Her response was the choice to be faithful. Faithful to serve… faithful to praise… faithful to His guidance..

So we are being called… sometimes daily, sometimes unexpectedly, sometimes with little warning…

Do we respond in praise and faithfulness… or in uncertainty and fear…

I so want to be like Mary… faithful…

So, I’ve tried to take the “but” out of my responses… and then … Jesus is born, the shepherds come..

And verse 19, But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart…

Instead of fear, instead of angst,  instead of questions for all the details… But Mary … I think she could do that because she was faithful… so just maybe I’ll put the word but Susan back in my vocabulary…

What do you think?

 For today, let's focus on responding to God's call simply in praise to Him... the Mighty One...

 And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord

    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has been mindful

    of the humble state of his servant.

From now on all generations will call me blessed,

    for the Mighty One has done great things for me—

    holy is his name.

His mercy extends to those who fear him,

    from generation to generation.

He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;

    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 

He has brought down rulers from their thrones

    but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things

    but has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

    remembering to be merciful

to Abraham and his descendants forever,

    just as he promised our ancestors.”  Luke 1:46-55