December 11
When someone begins a conversation with “don’t be mad…”, what is your initial response? Does your heart race a little faster, and does the pace of your breathing change? Maybe you can remember a friend or a family member starting a conversation in such a way that led to a dynamic conversation. I remember anytime my brother would start a conversation with these words, it almost always meant he broke something of mine, and he really expected me to be ok with it, and there would not be any sibling drama.
Considering our initial gut response to hearing those words to not be mad, what is our natural response to hearing “don’t be afraid”? Maybe you’ve heard these words as you received a diagnosis, entered a new stage of life, or the dynamics at home shifted. We can only imagine that Joseph had a similar response that we’ve had upon hearing the words “don’t be afraid”. These words may be amongst the most common words in the Bible, but when they are spoken directly to us, they hit a little differently and a little heavier. No matter what the setting was in which we had heard the words “Don’t be afraid”, most, if not all, of us knew we were about to be pushed, pulled, or catapulted out of our comfort zones. We find Joseph in this text as human as each of us with all of our feelings, questions, and angst.
It wasn’t the angel visiting in the dark of night that Joseph was told to not be afraid of, but the work of God he was being called to do that began with stepping outside the norms of everything he knew about being a good person, the norms and values that led others to know him as righteous (in the very best sense of the word). He was being told not to be afraid to go against all the norms that surrounded him and take pregnant Mary as his wife. Have you ever felt God calling you to do something that seemed to go against everything that you knew as normal and “right”? If you have heard God’s call and responded with a “yes”, you probably discovered God’s peace in the journey as you discovered you weren’t alone, as well as a joy that comes from trusting God despite your fears. On the other hand, if you’ve found yourself hearing God’s calling but often a “no” or a solid escape plan bubbling up inside, it’s worth knowing that’s probably fear speaking (or shouting). Fear is as naturally human as one expecting the sun to rise and set each and every day. However, God calls us often to lean into him more than fear itself.
Every great thing we will be called by God to do will require an element of risk and a leap of faith. It will involve some uncertainty, and at times, the only thing we will have to lean on is the faith that God has called us. Saying yes to God often involves vulnerability, the risk of imperfection, and an occasional restart.
When was the last time you felt God calling you to do something that made you anxious or afraid? When was the last time you said yes to that call when you really felt like saying no? Consider your life’s most exciting, life-giving, and joy-filled experiences, and how they have come because you took a risk, stepped outside your comfort zone, and said yes to God’s call in spite of any fears that were bubbling up.