Christmas Musings Day 19

A Personal Cost

Luke 1:38 (ESV) ³⁸ And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

               We live in an age of self-gratification, ease, and comfort. I struggle to get my students to read difficult novels. If I do not administer a quiz over reading assignments, they will not do them. Even with the threat of a poor quiz grade, many students accept a lower course average rather than complete an onerous task. When I ask them why they fight me so, they settle on one of two answers, “it’s boring,” or “it takes too much time.” They struggle with complex readings that require multiple passes to apprehend. They want everything in bullets with the bottom line up front. They consider personal comfort a prime motivator, and I’m not any better.

               We recently purchased some new furniture and I spent a lot of time in the store testing out the comfort level of many recliners…not a bad gig if you ask me. I too find myself measuring goodness in either time saved or personal comfort. I chafe when a business takes too long to get back to me. When I’m working with a computer, I want lightning-fast download speeds. Latency drives me nuts! Like the rest of my culture, I want things done my way and I want my comfort. I disdain things that bother me. In Advent, God shows a shocking disregard for the comfort level of those He called.

               All of the prime players in Advent found their lives disrupted, significantly disrupted. In some ways, it seems like God sought to make their lives uncomfortable as if participating in Advent entailed a commitment to suffer. Joseph endured whispers of either indiscretion or being cuckolded, neither a good thing. Yet, he agreed to serve the Lord as requested. He endured an additional nine months of celibacy, followed by a long trek with a pregnant mother to Bethlehem. Then, as if that were not enough, just as things settled down, he uprooted his family, fleeing to Egypt. Being the father of a newborn is difficult when things go well. Then Joseph found himself serving as the earthly father of the Messiah, a truly monumental task. To walk as Joseph did, by faith, implies acceptance of disruption to our daily schedule or even life plan. Advent makes me consider how seriously I take God’s call on my life. Advent plunged Joseph’s life into turmoil and is quite likely to have the same effect on mine. What areas of my life do I withhold from God’s continuing celebration of Advent?