What if You’re Not this Elizabeth but the one of Christmas past or more like Mary? Can you find joy this Advent season?
Perhaps this Christmas you find yourself filled with unspeakable joy as you finally hold the realization of your hopes & dreams as Elizabeth did with her son, John. Perhaps this Christmas, you have received the news that you will conceive the child, the job, the proposal, the dream, in what could only be construed as a miracle & through the favor of God. If this is you and Elizabeth, how could your hearts not be filled with joy?
I can picture her now going about her daily tasks, carrying a newborn on her hip, with a glow never seen on any woman before, as her baby cried and squirmed, as newborns tend to do. The laughter she must have had would have been contagious amid seeing the realization of God’s tangible favor there in her arms. How could she not experience joy?
But what if this Advent season, you can’t relate? What if your experience is more akin to the Elizabeth of yesterday…pick a decade…than it is to the one this Christmas? What if your experience is more aligned in the waiting of a liminal space than with the arrival of an open door?
Then my friend, can I offer you an understanding word? Even here, amongst the heartache, the sorrow, the pain, the disappointment, the brokenness, and the waiting for answers not yet come, there can be joy.
Easy to say, I know.
If you find yourself waiting in the darkness of unanswered prayers and unopened doors, I think the way to joy is not being dishonest about your disappointments & discomforts but rather about being honest that even here in the darkness of waiting, you’re not alone, even if you think you are.
Whether you look at person after person after person in the Bible who walked through their own liminal season (David, Joseph, Moses, etc.) or you hold fast to the promise of God that there is NO place you can go where He is not, I think your Advent joy is waiting in the realization that you are in a season of growth.
While wait can feel purposeless, and unending, it’s not. It’s where you have room to allow your roots to crack the soil and grow deeper into who God is so that as you emerge through those open doors, you’re ready for what He has planned.
Can you choose joy even when life doesn’t feel joyful? Can you choose to thank God for what is even when it’s not what you thought you wanted. Can you remind yourself of your Father’s great love for you that drew near to you & entered into your world to bring you His love, His joy, His peace, His hope which is not dependent on circumstances?
So for those of us standing in unending, liminal spaces of darkness, I want you to know you are not alone. I see you. God sees you. And even here, He offers you His joy.
But for those who aren’t in a waiting season, and don’t connect with the joy of Elizabeth, I offer you, Mary. The one whose joys had to be complex as her joy was interwoven with sorrow.
While yes, in church, we often describe a nice, neat encounter of Mary with the Angel. We watch kids dress up as the seminal people of our faith and smile at the wonder of our Creator Father. But maybe, we could peel back the layers just a bit? And consider a different perspective?
I think Mary’s joy was mixed. I think her joy was interwoven with the words “and” just like I think ours often is. Mary, an unmarried girl, becomes pregnant through no fault of her own, and her life is essentially ruined. She could be killed, exiled, or become a social outcast. Nothing like the typical feelings of utter joy awaits her amid the birth of the Savior of the World-a statement that is completely incomprehensible. Or maybe you think of a 9-month pregnant Mary traveling for miles, likely feeling the beginning stages of Braxton Hicks to arrive in a town so late that there’s not even a bed anyone is willing to give up to this girl, pregnant outside of wedlock. Or maybe, you picture her, as she “ponders” all the things the Shepherds tell her as she holds this precious baby in her arms. The baby that was born to become a human sacrifice for her sins, my sins, and those of all the people we hate.
Whichever moment of Mary’s story you hold, where’s the promised joy? I think it’s neatly tucked inside the word, and.
Mary became a social outcast AND God chose her to be the Savior’s mother. Mary was forced to walk miles for a ridiculous census AND in doing so, fulfilled the prophecies about the Messiah being born in Bethlehem. Mary pondered what it would mean for her child to save humanity if even such a thought were possible, AND it meant God had a plan to reconcile all of us back into a familial relationship with Himself.
There is much joy to be found in the “ands” of life.
So if this advent season has you feeling a bit disconnected from the joy that seems to surround others, can I offer you a small gift?
Look for the and.
Look for the and as you grieve what isn’t AND celebrate what is. Look for the AND as you hold your disappointments AND give thanks to what surrounds you. Sometimes, if we can shift our gaze from the places of hurt towards the AND, we encounter the joy of the Lord who loved us, loved you, too much to leave you alone in a dark & broken world. May the joy that was set before to endure the cross for you, find its way into the midst of what isn’t, so that you experience the joy of what is.
A Savior who sees You, in this moment (wherever this moment finds you), and doesn’t discount those heavy feelings but offers His hands to hold them as He hands you His Joy. So that in Him, your joy may be made complete. ❤️
Rooted Leaders 