Max Lucado compares Mary's acceptance of God at his Word, including accepting the the Word of God was made flesh in her womb. That same Word, Jesus Christ wants to dwell fully in us. Here is how Max explains it:
Like Mary, you and I are indwelt by Christ.
Find that hard to believe? How much more did Mary? No one was more surprised by this miracle than she was. And no one more passive than she was. God did everything. Mary didn't volunteer to help. What did she have to offer? She offered no assistance.
And she offered no resistance. Instead she said, "Behold, the bond- slave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38).
Unlike Mary, we tend to assist God, assuming our part is as important as his. Or we resist, thinking we are too bad or too busy. Yet when we assist or resist, we miss God's great grace. We miss out on the reason we were placed on earth-to be so pregnant with heaven's child that he lives through us. To be so full of him that we could say with Paul, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." (Gal. 2:20)
What would that be like? To have a child within is a miracle, but to have Christ within?
To have my voice, but him speaking.
My steps, but Christ leading.
My heart, but his love beating
in me, through me, with me.
What's it like to have Christ on the inside?To tap his strength when mine expires
or feel the force of heaven's fires
raging, purging wrong desires.
Could Christ become my self entire?So much him, so little me
That in my eyes it's him they see.
What's it like to a Mary be?
No longer I, but Christ in me.From Next Door Savior
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 2003) Max Lucado
You can visit Max at his web site here.
How many ways can you spell "wow"? Michael, your citation from NEXT DOOR SAVIOUR has resulted in at least one sale. I am going out to buy this book today! And I'm going to bow out of a (somewhat silly) social event in order to dive right into it.
ReplyDeleteMuch of my professional success as a commercial writer/editor is attributable to my ability to "get out of the way" and serve as a communications channel through which others might express themselves. It gives me jitters to merely contemplate what might happen if I could accomplish this with my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! I am more or less retired now, and I am admittedly uncertain about what I should do with my God-given talents. Talents cannot retire the way people do. Like vocation, talent just goes on and on, feeding itself, refining itself, and generally getting better. Like the self-fulfillment that comes from heeding a "vocational calling", talent involves a self-perpetuating cycle. And while I don't pretend to the monumental writerly talent of a C.S. Lewis or Somerset Maugham, I nonetheless have a enough talent to have kept myself and my family fed and warm and prosperous for decades now.
What am I supposed to do with it now that: I am virtually retired and on a pension; the kids have grown up and moved out and on to building their own families; and, my "responsibilities" have been effectively reduced to a fraction of what they were? In the past, circumstantial necessity obliged me to "sell" my talent in excahange for Caesar's cold, hard currency. But what to do with it now? How should I use it in the years left to me?
I find myself praying for guidance about this a LOT these days. I know it is irresponsible and wrong to not tend the little garden God assigned me, to let it become overgrown and ragged. The gifts God gives us MUST be used, and used wisely. If they are not, they wither and die. And that's no way to treat a gift from God, is it?
This posting, Michael, will see me praying that much harder for guidance about this. While still in convalescent mode in the wake of recent illness, I am getting both intellectually and spiritually desperate about this. I know God will provide me the direction i pray for, but I just want it sooner rather than later. And the healthier I am feeling, the greater is my desperation.
And, thank God, I am beginning to feel HEALTHY again! This was something that seemed a rather remote possibility a mere month ago. Yet here I am, feeling better with every passing day, and I'm beginning to feel IDLE. I know I have to "pace" myself, but I want to have a plan for when I don't have to pace myself. That plan might as well be God's Plan, right? I mean, wouldn't it be MARVELOUS if God revealed a plan to me? I'm waiting, willing, and praying for such a revelation. And sometimes I wonder if I invest too much "me" in all this. Is my desire getting in the way of my fulfillment?
Meanwhile, back on Channel Earth, I'm watching reruns of crappy programming that mankind knows didn't fly the first time around....
Am I drifting? Because that's what unused talent is like - snowflakes drifting through air when they could be part of a really NEAT snowfort that keeps dozens of kids amused and entertained and playing together for hours at a time.
I'm tired of being flakes, God. Please show me how to become Your snowfort. That's what I wanna be, God, and soon. Like this winter, okay? Please? I'll get outta the way, I promise! If You fill me up with Jesus and top me off with a heady dose of Holy Spirit, I'm outta there in a heartbeat and with YOU totally.
How cool would that be? Seriously...it is my fondest wish and dream right now. And so I will continue to pray...
Brother:
ReplyDeleteThere was no way this comment was going to be hidden under a bushel basket. It now has seen the light of day, where this kind of depth needs to shine.
http://freethroughtruth.blogspot.com/2009/12/comment-on-next-door-saviour-by-max.html
God Bless Your Day