When God asks you to do something that puts your safety and sanity at risk, you will need to respond with reckless obedience.
The Bible is full of those who have obeyed though everyone around them would think them reckless, at least, we would think so today. Noah, asked by God to put everything on the line to build a huge boat, responded in reckless obedience. Moses, asked by God to go back to Egypt where he was wanted for murder, responded with reckless obedience. Gideon, asked by God to take an army of 300 against an army of 300,000, responded in reckless obedience. The list goes on and on, but one story of this kind of radical obedience takes the stage here in December.
Mary was a young, betrothed woman; a nobody, really, in a nowhere town when her life was rocked by a single, unbelievable event. An angel appeared to her, or so she said, and told her she would become pregnant, without sleeping with a man, and that the baby she would bear would be the son of the living God.
Think about what this would mean to her. In ancient days, she would be drug outside of the village and stoned. Though those days had generally past, she would still be shunned, lose her engagement and be an outcast for the rest of her life. She, in her situation, had little to hope for anything and even that God was wanting her to give away. Mary, thankfully for us, chose to cast her own wellbeing and safety aside and be recklessly obedient.
God probably doesn’t want you to be reckless in your obedience, but he does want you to be obedient. The thing about obedience in God’s economy is that it almost always costs something. Though it may not be reckless to go to France to be the light in the darkness, it will cost you. You will leave your family and most likely you will need to humble yourself and ask for others to financially support you. Living in another culture is emotionally expensive and if you have a family, you are making this decision for them as well. Your message will, most likely, not be well accepted. “Work” will be difficult and seeing result may never happen.
Choose to obey with the spirit of Mary this Christmas…no matter what the cost.
Merry Christmas!