Tag: slowing down

Living with dyslexia

2 Comments

I have the huge pleasure of introducing Sarah Grace to my blog. I know her as a confident and caring publisher – it wasn’t until she wrote this guest piece that I discovered she lives with dyslexia. Here, she describes how she manages to do so, and the tools she believes will help us all understand and manage our mental wellbeing more successfully. Before I hand over to her, I just want to remind you that last year for World Mental Health Day I highlighted some other writers who look at mental health in their work, in case you’d like to take another look at that article.

I think it’s wonderful that right in the middle of Dyslexia Awareness Week is World Mental Health Day, because there is such a link between the two. As I talk about in my book, Journey with Grace, dyslexia can lead to extreme anxiety and even suicidal thoughts. 

Recognising our strengths and limitations

Often dyslexia can be undiagnosed and understated. Dyslexics can often feel like we can be tripped up at any hurdle. It is not just ‘b’s’ and ‘d’s’ getting muddled; there are many unseen aspects to it. We may be able to tackle a task one day yet the very next day that same task seems difficult or even impossible. However, when we are honest with ourselves and others about the effects of dyslexia we are able to manage better. Rather than an excuse, owning, recognising and understanding both our limitations and our strengths helps us day to day. 

For example, on difficult days I try not to compare myself to how I am on better days. I have learned to go with what is happening on that day. So, if I am struggling with numbers, I will leave my accounts alone that day if I can, and wait to tackle them on a better day. I might find spelling difficult one day so I will delay writing an important email until I am less tired and see if it comes more easily at another time.

Capturing our thoughts

I have learned not to sweat the small stuff, to slow down and be kinder to myself. I try to see the bigger picture of life. Competing with ourselves and others can make life incredibly hard. We need to ask ourselves: is it thoughts in our head or is there really a competition going on? Making sense of this and letting go of the mental battle can be such a relief, as it is exhausting to keep it going with no resolve. 

I have learned how important it is to recognise the conversations that we have in our minds. We can capture the thoughts by speaking them out, perhaps to a counsellor, or through journaling, in order to see them for what they are and make sense of them. It can be hugely valuable to make ourselves this vulnerable, as it helps us to recognise and acknowledge how damaging the mental battles can be. It also helps us to move away from them. 

Slowing down in order to learn more

Alongside my book, I am publishing a journal called Journal with Grace in order to encourage readers to write down their feelings and emotional reactions in order to see the connections. I have learned that when we take time for ourselves, by slowing down and taking a step back from the business of life, we can see what is actually happening. We are then able to notice our own behaviour, our emotions, reactions, stresses, dreams and desires. 

During lockdown many of us had a chance to slow down, but when life started to open up again anxiety may have crept in. Making time each day to slow down, and be more aware of ourselves, our responses and the particular challenges we are facing that day, helps us to face the fear and understand what is behind it. We can also learn to break down the tasks that feel overwhelming into smaller steps. It is truly a privilege to give ourselves time to know ourselves, in order to face the fears and anxieties that stop us reaching our true selves and calling.

I do hope that Journey with Grace will help you take that time out, be inspired by the stories of transformation and find space to retreat, journal and discover how life can be enjoyed one day at a time.

Sarah Grace is an integrative psychotherapist in private practice and a director at Malcolm Down and Sarah Grace Publishing. Embracing her own life journey with dyslexia, she uses her counselling and coaching skills to work closely with clients, helping them lead a more fulfilling life.

National Poetry Day

To celebrate National Poetry Day, I have the pleasure of introducing Janet Morley as guest blogger on my site today.

I am fortunate enough to have had my new book, Love Set You Going – poems of the heart (SPCK) published just as we are celebrating the importance of poetry in our lives. Some readers will immediately identify with this, while others may feel that they have never really seen the point of poetry – or believe it to be a bit of a niche interest, an escape from the real world. 

But I believe that poetry is needed more than ever in the turbulent world we are living in, where language is used in highly manipulative, quick-fire ways to conceal what is really going on. By contrast, poetry seeks to be truthful; it pays close attention to detail, whether in the landscape of politics or the human heart. It makes us slow down and attend to language that is pared down and carefully shaped, with layers of insight available as we engage our own brain and heart in the search for meaning. 

As such, poetry is a real resource for spiritual exploration, and I enjoy introducing Christians who have never ‘got’ poetry (and indeed poetry lovers who have never quite ‘got’ Christian faith) to its extraordinary power to make us go deep. This is what my selection of poems and interpretative commentaries try to do. While some of the individual poems are explicitly religious, many are not so – but they all address important human issues of life and death that Christians should be concerned with.

Love Set You Going is a book of love poetry, but with a difference. Most collections of love poems centre just on erotic or romantic yearnings only (and usually only in that first flush of enthusiasm). But there are many different kinds of love, and love itself has different moods and seasons over time. There is the primary love between parents and vulnerable infants, an ever-shifting relationship that can almost reverse itself by the time parents themselves become frail. Of course there is passionate, erotic love – but this may be undeclared, or unreciprocated, or may go wrong – or it may become a mature companionship that does endure until the death of one partner and the deep grief of the other. But all our human loves are rooted in God, who created us in love and destined us to be fully known and fully loved in eternity.

As the introduction of Love Set You Going puts it:

‘In this anthology, the selected poems are grouped into sections: Up and down the generations; Grown up love; God and the human heart; and a short Postscript. The reader will find that there are many resonances between the sections, since we are constantly moved to understand one kind of love by reference to another: the earliest kind of love experienced by a needy infant is a startling image of God’s love for us; an adult lover soothes his beloved to sleep almost as if he were singing a lullaby to a child; the restless searching of a passionate woman for her lost lover becomes a metaphor of the soul’s seeking after God; and so on. In many of the poems, we see that images of the natural world are vital to conveying love’s force and bodiliness: the changing seasons; the interplay of sunlight and darkness; outdoor activities like farming, mountain climbing, or walking in the woods or across the prairie; gazing at stars; following the flight of birds; watching the tides. It is as if we cannot love another without also being attentive to the vital details of the bodily world we live in. Love set us going; love formed us in the womb; we were made for love, and all our efforts at living well are nothing, if we lack love. And to love we shall return.’

As a taster, Christina Rossetti’s long poem ‘What good shall my life do me?’ (quoted in full in the book) begins in a rather gloomy reflective space, as you can gather from the title. But she swiftly directs her attention away from herself towards the glories of creation – the ‘pomp of blossoms veined or pied’; ‘the winged ecstasies of birds’ – incorporating insights from both biblical psalms and contemporary scientific discoveries. It becomes a paean of praise for the ‘Love that moves the sun and the other stars’, in Dante’s phrase:

Love hangs this earth in space: Love rolls
Fair worlds rejoicing on their poles,
And girds them round with aureoles:

Love lights the sun: Love through the dark
Lights the moon’s evanescent arc:
Same Love lights up the glow-worm’s spark:

Love rears the great: Love tends the small:
Breaks off the yoke, breaks down the wall:
Accepteth all, fulfilleth all.

O ye who taste that Love is sweet,
Set waymarks for the doubtful feet
That stumble on in search of it.

Janet Morley is a freelance writer and retreat leader, who used to work for Christian Aid and the Methodist Church. She has produced a good deal of liturgical writing using inclusive language (All Desires Known), and her recent work has focused on poetry anthologies with commentaries that explore poetry as a spiritual resource (The Heart’s Time, Haphazard by Starlight, Our Last Awakening). She is a grandmother of six.

Wanting the quick fix

My husband and I recently started using a fitness app on our phones, as we want to lose a bit of weight. It is quite time-consuming making a note of all the things that we eat but, it is a great way to keep a check on the amount of calories that I’m consuming – and it has definitely stopped me from grabbing a snack each time I go to refill my hot water mug or eating a slice of cheese while I’m cooking or preparing the children’s packed lunches.

However the slightly frustrating part is that my husband seems to be losing weight more quickly than I am, and he can already feel and see a slight difference in his body. I have heard that women take longer to shed the pounds, so I keep saying that to myself – but I’m still annoyed.

Then this morning happened. God started gently talking to me about this attitude – and revealed that it runs throughout my life (ouch).

I heard him whisper to my heart: ‘You want the quick fix. You don’t like the long haul.’

I had been looking for a little bit of encouragement, to help me keep going (as I’ve been feeling hungry constantly, whereas my husband has always been someone who can take or leave food).

So I wasn’t too chuffed to hear what God was saying…but then I took time to reflect on it and realised He was right.

For example, I’ve been reading Jen Wilkin’s great book Women of the Word, which challenges the way we approach the Bible. I said a hearty ‘Amen’ when I read her comments on how too often we can go to the Bible to find out more about ourselves, or to look for answers or direction, when actually the point of reading the Bible is to find out more about God.

Then Jen began talking about all the different ways we can choose to read the Bible – such as thematically, delving into it randomly like we’ve been ‘led’ to a particular passage. And I realised that I can have a tendency to do that. 

She then moved on to talk about a systematic approach to digging deeper into the Word. I began to get excited but then, as I read on, I realised that it was going to be a lot of hard work! I even thought to myself: ‘why would I do this all myself when so many others have done it before me?’ I hate to admit that, but it’s true!

Jen herself recognises the great insights found in commentaries and in the introduction to books in study Bibles and yet there is a treasure to be found when we research and read for ourselves, beforewe read what they say.

Even when I’m writing Bible study notes I want to get to the heart of what the message is quickly – and yet I feel a quickening that God is perhaps challenging me to slow down and do even more hard workto allow Him to reveal deeper secrets to me from His Word.

And I think the truth is we can have the ‘quick fix’ approach to all areas of our lives. Part of it is probably down to our consumer-led culture, but a lot of it is our sinful, selfish nature. 

As God speaks to me more personally about this, I’m finding I’m recognising and repenting of attitudes that I never recognised as lazy or self-entitled before.

What about you? Are there areas in your life that you are beginning to realise you look for the ‘quick fixes’ in?

What I have been reading: winter 2015/16

As well as a few titles that I have kept returning to week after week, I saved up some of the books that I’d been sent in the latter part of 2015 to enjoy over the Christmas period, and during my recuperation from a minor op. Here’s my thoughts on the selection:

outofsortscover

Out of Sorts By Sarah Bessey

This was a book that I read in order to interview Sarah for an author profile in a magazine. I knew she was a great writer, but I wasn’t prepared for how much the book was going to resonate with where I was at, or how much it would challenge me. I love the way that Sarah gives us permission to feel out of sorts – as a pastor’s wife I often feel I need to hide my struggles for the benefit of those around me – but at the same time have a conviction that sharing those same struggles would help others. She talks of how a period of growth often includes feeling out of sorts as we re-navigate our assumptions about our faith. I didn’t agree with absolutely everything, but I think Sarah would be okay with that – after all she indicates that her desire in writing the book is not so others will go on the same journey that she has, but will find their own way deeper with God. Amen to that.

resilient cover

Resilient By Sheridan Voysey

This book was born out of Sheridan’s own experiment: to spend a month in the Sermon on the Mount. Written as a devotional, I really took my time with this one as I found the bite-size chapters were packed with challenges and insights. Sheridan doesn’t just stick with a verse by verse walk through the Sermon – each section has a chunk of the Sermon at the start but then he includes other scriptures that have resonated with him on the particular subject in question. I found this a very honest and enriching devotional, which has given me much to ponder and work through for myself.

 

findingmyselfinbritain

Finding myself in Britain By Amy Boucher Pye

I was really excited to delve into the pages of this one: I have known Amy and worked for her for a few years in our editorial capacities, so I was intrigued to find out what Amy’s book would be like. And I wasn’t disappointed. Charming, witty, honest and with an openness that only an American would have, Amy introduces the British year to the reader, describing each season and event in the calendar though her American eyes. As an American married to a British vicar she has lived here for many years so has great insight. She also introduces us to some of her childhood delights and other native joys – as a Brit who grew up in America it was lovely to go down memory lane as I recognised so much of what she described from ‘back home’. This is a perfect book to give as a gift to a friend.

 

the scent of waterThe Scent of Water By Elizabeth Goudge

I saved this book to take into hospital with me, and I have to say it was the perfect choice. Gentle, tender, poetic and beautifully descriptive, the book is about a middle-aged woman from London who is left a house in the country when her father’s cousin dies. She decides to leave the city and move there, and, in doing so, embarks on a journey of discovery – about herself, her distant relative, her lost love and the people she lives near in the country. The pace is slow and meandering – at another time I may have got impatient with that but it was just what I needed. I enjoyed the moments of spiritual insights too, jotting down many of them.

 

twosteps forward

Two Steps Forward By Sharon Garlough Brown

This is the sequel to Sensible Shoes. Again a title I had had for ages, I saved it for the Christmas break. The first book introduced us to four women who met during a spiritual formation journey at a retreat centre. They are all very different, but strike up a friendship that lasts beyond the retreat. With sequels I am always concerned that I won’t get as caught up in the story, or won’t care as much about the characters as I did first time round, but Sharon did a brilliant job of moving their stories on and I was gripped. I loved reading about how the characters were learning to use the things they discovered on retreat back in their everyday lives, with all the difficulties and struggles they contain.

As she did in the first book, Sharon also includes great spiritual insights, many of which are highlighted ready to be transferred into my journal as they spoke to me personally. I love it when a novel is more than a mere escape – although that is obviously a big role novels play in our lives. This book left me challenged, with new spiritual disciplines and exercises to try. I heartily recommend it – and the whole series if you haven’t read the first book. I’m excited to learn that Sharon is already working on the fourth book in the series…

Slowing down during Advent

Bible_study___Advent_419658179

I love Christmas. I love the preparations, the waiting, the build up of excitement, the putting up of decorations, the time spent devising menus. I love being involved in the music for carol services, watching our children’s excitement as they prepare for the nativity play. But, if I’m honest, I also struggle with the stress.

I see the start of Advent, and know that it’s a time of reflection – and I long to have the time and space to really enjoy it. However, I’m sad to say, the busyness of life so often crowds in as I rush to finish deadlines before the kids break up from school.

At this point in our calendar I’m focused most on getting our son’s birthday party celebrations organised, with the ever-growing list of jobs to do for Christmas weighing on my mind.

Even among all the activity, though, I can sense a longing in my soul. I am desperate to connect, to find the deeper meaning in this season. And I am desperate for our family’s experience of Advent to go beyond chocolate and calendars.

I am drawn to rediscover the meaning of waiting this Advent. Drawn to the character of Mary, and what this time meant for her. When we first meet her in the gospels she seems like a vulnerable young woman; betrothed to a respectable man in her neighbourhood. But one visit from an angel changes everything.

Mary’s response to that angel, after a few somewhat understandable questions, is simply ‘I am the Lord’s servant… May your words to me be fulfilled.’ (Luke 1:38) Incredible. I could never be that calm.

After visiting Elizabeth, Mary creates what is often referred to as the Magnificat, her song of praise (Luke 1:46-55). Through it she reveals she understands the way that God has blessed her for a special purpose. Mary recognises that God is a champion for the poor and oppressed too, and that God is fulfilling His promises to Abraham (and Israel) through what is to take place.

Whenever I look at those verses I am always taken aback. Granted, Mary has had a visitation from an angel, who has taken the time to explain things to her. Elizabeth has also recognised that the baby inside of Mary is the Lord so Mary has someone she can talk freely with. But still…

While Mary herself recognises she is highly favoured, she’s also in a time of waiting that is filled with so many unknowns. Will Joseph stand by her? If he does, will their society cast them out? And then, once the census was decreed, how will she cope with the long journey to Bethlehem and where will she give birth? (I’m sure that the idea of a stable never once entered her head!) What would her son be like? How would He make Himself known as the Messiah?

So many questions, yet the biblical account doesn’t reveal much about Mary’s state of mind. There seems to be a peace amongst the anticipation while the reality must have been messy, and deeply painful, at times. What surrounds this part of the Christmas story for me is stillness and patience; the atmosphere thick with pregnant hope.

While I pause for a moment to reflect and write this, I pray that I too can find that stillness and patience. That I too can look forward to the coming celebrations with hope, not allowing the stress and busyness that can so easily accompany this season to rob me of the precious gift behind it all.

This blog was originally published on Christian Today.

What one thing has God asked you to do today?

If you don’t know the answer to that question then perhaps, like me, you are a little too goal-orientated and focused on achieving rather than slowing down long enough to hear from God.

lady surrounded by technology

Often our priorities are not God’s, our ‘good ideas’ not ones that He’s dropped into our minds. I was really convicted by a daily devotional I read today, in which the author described herself as someone who is too busy to be interrupted. Too set on being productive and ‘useful’, she isn’t able to deal with the stress and emotions of her own life, let alone those of others.

I gulped. And then admitted to myself that she could have been describing me. So often people comment that I must be extremely busy helping others. As a pastor’s wife I do get my fair share of burdened people wanting a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on and someone willing to pray with them. And I consider that a privilege.

The problem is, I have my own ideas about what I should focus my time on, which means that the hours my kids are at school are taken up with work. Of course, the majority of us have to work in order to live, so I don’t feel that that’s a problem. What is, though, is that niggling feeling I sometimes get. The feeling that tries to tell me I don’t need to work quite so much…

To read the rest of this article please click here.

The ‘gift’ of chickenpox: slowing down

So last week chickenpox came to our house. The timing in some ways was terrible – it meant my mum couldn’t come to stay. But as the days wore on I saw how God held us and worked through the situation.

I had wanted my son to get chickenpox before he gets much older (he’s now 6). So when an outbreak happened in his class I was secretly fairly pleased. But when it actually happened I immediately started stressing – at the last minute my parents couldn’t come to be with the kids while we went to a leadership weekend (could we even go if he was really suffering with it?).

I then started stressing about how I was going to juggle my work with my son at home. My daughter is great at amusing herself – when ill she simply takes herself off to bed and reads and naps. But he is different. He doesn’t seem able to play for long on his own and wants constant attention.

After the first day of him appearing by my side constantly I was beginning to get irritated and even more stressed. So I made a conscious decision to bring it all before God and ask Him to help order our days and allow me to be there for my son and comfort him, but also get the work done that I needed to without too much difficulty. I also prayed that we would have precious moments together that we could look back on with fondness afterwards.

3c86f445d4f5571c392fb08a7a5e6da2

What then followed were a few days of him either napping or playing for a little while so I could start some work, and then we’d snuggle up on the sofa and watch a film together. I always took a pile of reading or other work with me, but it usually stayed in a pile and I didn’t look at it at all.

One of the days this untouched work started to weigh on my mind but then I felt God really clearly tell me to stop worrying about it. The vital work was getting done – yes I didn’t feel like I had much head space but He gently reminded me that my body isn’t working at 100% at the moment and that the rest was good for me too so I should simply embrace it rather than not allowing myself to unwind and enjoy it because I thought I ‘ought to’ be doing something.

It made me think about how often we don’t allow ourselves to rest because we are in ‘do’ mode and rest seems lesser somehow – not worth as much as getting through our ‘to do’ list.

So, through my son’s illness, God was yet again gently reminding me that I need to slow down and allow myself to rest. The things I have to get done are no less important, but the way I view them and the hierarchy I so often put on the things in my life needs to change to allow me space just to ‘be’ more regularly.

 

Worshipping the King this Christmas

christmas_decorations_200592

Christmas is almost upon us. Have you wrapped all the presents, bought the turkey, and started to make up beds for family and friends that will be staying with you?

This time of year is really busy isn’t it? There are a few Christmas services still to attend/run too. And what about those films your kids are desperate to see, and the now seemingly obligatory visits to Santa available at every shopping and garden centre…

 I asked you in my last column what you would do if God wanted to interrupt your plans this Christmas. Whether He has or not, how have you made room for Him in these last couple of weeks?

I know Christmas can be a really pressurised time of year, as there is simply so much to organise and the coming together of people who don’t see each other regularly can be stressful.

But amongst all the heightened commercialisation of the season, how have you been worshipping the King?

Black Friday showed us how much our culture worships material goods – people were fighting over things they really don’t need just to get a ‘bargain’.

So, as we approach Christmas itself, I think it’s really important to slow down, just for a minute or two, and ask, ‘Am I worshipping the King in my Christmas plans?’.

To read the rest of this article please click here.

Advent remembering

3 Comments

It is my absolute pleasure to welcome writerly friend Lucy Mills for this brilliant guest blog about embracing a new kind of remembering this Advent:

advent candles by Stushie

Advent Candles image by Stushie.

 

I often forget about Advent until I’m in it. More accurately, I don’t realise how fast the time has gone and suddenly it’s mid December and – oh. I feel irritated; as if I’ve missed out on something. Is it worth it, now? Or have I missed the Advent bus?

This year I did at least notice when December began, which has helped. I had already made a note, in fact, that I needed to prepare myself for Advent. I know that sounds odd, as Advent is itself a preparation.

Yet I forget to make time and space for that preparing to take place.

I forget a lot of things.

These past 12 months or so have been quite significant for me. We’ve moved to a new area and a new church (my husband is a Baptist minister). I’ve made new friends as well as trying to nurture the old. The editing role I already had has now shifted to one with more responsibility and oversight. And – I appear to have created a book. And it appears to have been published.

How odd! How extraordinary! I’m a first-timer, poking it to check if it is real. I’m also a little shy of it now. After years of pouring myself into it, I feel a bit self-conscious. Reading it makes me squirm a little, like watching myself on screen.

I’m tempted to leave it on the shelf, to draw a line under it.

But that would make a mockery of what it is about. Because the book is a confession: of my own forgetfulness. My tendency towards distraction, every day and any day. And it’s also a reflection on the importance of remembering God in our daily lives – what this means.

I can’t draw a line under it; it’s part of my continuing journey and it’s as relevant to me now as it was when I started it.

Because my condition is chronic. I neglect my faith. I don’t open my bible. Then I feel guilty about how long it’s been since I opened it. So I don’t think about it, and the pages remain unread. I pray occasionally rather than continually. I reach a point where I feel empty, and I am blind enough to wonder why.

I’ve forgotten who I am. I’ve forgotten who I am because I’ve ceased remembering who God is. As a Christian, my identity is in Christ. Yet instead of focusing on him, my eyes drift. When I squint towards my faith, I do so through a fog of my own distractedness. I don’t allow times for rest and reflection – I fill them up with mediocre diversions. I’m a little scared to face myself and admit my forgetfulness. So I embrace the forgetfulness even more.

It takes discipline to pull myself back, and often it’s the tug of the Holy Spirit – not my own strength. God, in all patience, woos me into returning. I come understanding: whom have I but you? To whom else would I go?

The seasons of the Church are, in many ways, tools for remembering. Advent, focusing on the coming Christ, can be a great antidote for forgetfulness, if we dare to take more than a cursory sip of it. The incarnate Christ came as a fragile baby into a dark world; the resurrected Christ is still present with us now by the power of the Spirit. And the glorified Christ will come again.

Today, in spite of my busyness, in spite of the distractions, I choose to take a breath. I allow myself to remember. A mere moment, perhaps, but it births more moments as I form a habit of pausing.

This Advent, take a moment to pause. Breathe. Allow yourself to take a handful of stillness. It will help you get perspective on the rest of it – the hurly-burly, the ever-changing, the tugging cords of life.

Reflect on the light that came into the darkness, the light that cannot be put out. And ask for that light to shine on all your distractedness and disrepair.

You haven’t missed the bus. It’s not too late to start a new kind of remembering. Every morning is another chance to draw close to our God of mercy and grace. Seek the One who knows every part of you – the shallow and the deep – and who loves you.

I need to hear this, to reflect on it this Advent season.

Do you?

FH high res

Lucy Mills has written a wonderfully challenging book on how our hearts can be so forgetful. Here are the details – I will be reviewing it some time but, for now, I thoroughly recommend it. A good choice for a Christmas present 🙂

Forgetful Heart: Remembering God in a Distracted World is published by Darton, Longman and Todd (2014). You can read more about it on her website.

Are you willing to let God disrupt your life?

2 Comments

Bible_study___Advent_419658179

We are now in Advent, traditionally a time of looking forward and preparing for the coming of Christ through acts of remembrance and repentance as we get ourselves ready spiritually.

The word advent is the anglicised version of the Latin word adventus, which means ‘coming’, ‘arrival’, ‘approach’. During this time we remember the longing ancient people had for a saviour, a messiah, but also how we should be alert for His second coming.

Today, however, I’ve been pondering the consequences of one particular visit or ‘approach’ that started off the events of that first Christmas. That of the angel Gabriel visiting Mary, which I’ve been looking at in Luke 1:26-38.

I was struck afresh today what a bizarre and potentially terrifying experience it must have been for a young girl to suddenly be face to face with an angel. That itself was mind-blowing enough. And yet what about his message? To be told that you, a young, unmarried virgin, would be the mother of the Son of God?!

We obviously don’t get a blow-by-blow account of the story in the Gospels, but I wonder what your response would have been if you had been given such a life-changing message?

We are told that at the start of the conversation ‘Mary was greatly troubled at his words’ (Luke 1:29). Don’t you just love the Bible’s skill at understatement? Troubled? I think I would have either frozen stiff, screamed for help or run away. And that was before he’d even told her God’s plans…

Mary was obviously someone who sought God and made following Him a priority; that must have helped her recognise that this angelic being was indeed sent from God. I admire her courage for sticking it out, for staying long enough to hear his full message.

Pondering the passage in Luke, I do believe that God’s peace must have descended on Mary when she accepted that she was listening to His messenger. How else could she stand there and listen without having a serious freak out?

But what strikes me the most is her simple trust and obedience. Just listen to what she says when Gabriel has finished his speech: ‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled.’ (v38)

Part of me wants to shout at her: ‘Come on Mary he’s just totally disrupted your wedding plans – actually, he may well have cost you your wedding. Who is going to believe that you will become pregnant by the Holy Spirit? That just sounds crazy. Do you really think Joseph will believe you?’

And yet that side of me is silenced by the piercing effect her response has. Mary was being asked to trust an angelic being who had brought her a message that would turn her life upside down but, not only that, would change the world if the boy indeed turned out to be the Messiah they were all hoping for. What a privilege … but what an enormous upheaval that necessitated her laying down her rights to all her dreams and plans.

What this passage has made me consider, is what I would do if Jesus or an angel came to me and asked me to disrupt my plans. Not my whole life – just my week’s plans.

To read the rest of this reflection, please click here.