Knocked Up and Joyful

Our little church has been growing, so now along with our Sunday services we will be adding three weekly community groups that meet during the week to share life together. Steve and I will be hosting and leading one of those community groups at our house starting up in a few weeks.

We love hosting groups and being hospitable, but this is the first time that we're actually leading a group as far as providing a teaching from the Bible is concerned. I'm a little nervous because I love learning, but don't feel like I'm a very adequate teacher. I have this fear that I'm going to steer people wrong, so it has caused me to pray a lot and know that I'm totally dependent on God.

Anyway, right now in church the sermon series has been called "Discovering Jesus". It's taking a more in depth look on the life of Jesus in the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that tell Jesus' story. They were all written by different disciples and although all the stories line up together, they're all told from the different perspectives of the particular author.

Our community groups will be studying more in-depth some of these books and Steve and I decided that we would like our group to study the book of Luke. Luke was an outsider and because of that loved reaching out to the outsiders and those who didn't necessarily fit in - such as common laborers, those who were racially different, the poor and those who were kind of just written off as weird.

Steve and I also really have a heart to reach those who would be considered common day outsiders, so we decided that Luke would be a good book for our group to study. I haven't even really started the in-depth study so much, but already feel like I'm learning a lot.

This morning I was reading in Luke 1 about Mary (Jesus' mother) and how the angel came to tell her that she was pregnant. I've always though about how overwhelming that must have been for her and how I would have reacted, but haven't really stopped to take the time to really think about how she actually handled the news.

What's crazy is that she had such a trust in God that she was joyful and willing to serve immediately after she got the news that she was pregnant. If I put myself in her shoes I know that I would most undoubtedly be freaking out and trying to figure how I was going to explain to everyone (especially my fiance) that even though I was pregnant I was still a virgin and haven't been messing around. Of course, I would be thinking about what everyone would be thinking about me, because for obvious reasons nobody would have believed my story. I would be afraid of becoming an outcast to my family and loved ones. Not Mary though, she just said, "I am the Lord's and I am here and ready to serve."

How crazy is that?!?! She didn't even take the time to stop and doubt and freak out because she trusted God that much, and not only did she trust Him, she trusted Him with a grateful heart! She was thankful that God had put her in this crazy situation.

What a lesson to me. This last year has been a year of having our faith tested and so many times being thankful was at the very bottom of my Spiritual "to-do" list. So many times I was too busy freaking out and asking God what he was going to do next, that many times I forgot to just be thankful for all the He was doing in me. I was so busy putting my trust in Him while trying to come up with a backup plan of my own in the meantime. I know realistically that's just not how trusting in God works, but fear and worry is often times a weakness of mine.

Mary's faith is such an example to me and when I look at all the obstacles that were in front of her as she had a blessing growing inside of her, I hope and pray that my life can resemble the attitude of faith, joy, gratefulness and a willingness to serve like she had.