I wonder what Myers-Briggs personality Mary, the mother of Jesus, would have been. Being an INFJ, I can’t imagine she was a J (someone who likes to have a plan, always has a plan, and likes that plan to go according to plan), and here’s why: Luke 1 reveals that soon after Gabriel, an angel, announced to her that she would become pregnant through the Holy Spirit and then give birth to the Messiah, one of her first responses was to worship.
Yes, bearing the Son of God was an incredible honor. But let’s be honest: it was a major life—ahem, plan—interrupter. Preparations for her upcoming marriage to Joseph, relationships with family and neighbors, her place in her town—all were about to be turned upside-down.
My “Plan Interrupted”
I’ve been in the middle of a “plan interrupted.” Then the Restlessness started. After months of discernment, during which I had no sense of what God might be leading me to, last December I started to get some clarity. Then I had a moment that didn’t involve an angel from God, like Mary got, but that felt almost as significant and clear.
So I set about rearranging my life (aka making a plan) for this new goal. But that new plan was interrupted again. After hearing God so clearly and experiencing a few months of drawing closer to him in prayer, I was plunged into a season of feeling his silence and (seeming) absence more than his presence and voice. I’m still in that season--trying to match what I know in my head to be true of God: that he’s good (1 Chronicles 16:34), that he’s with us all the time (Psalm 16:8), that he’s sovereign (Jeremiah 32:17), that he speaks and guides and leads (Isaiah 58:11) with what most of this year has felt like: lonely, untethered, unseen.
Fuel for Worship
I wonder if Mary experienced this. I have to believe, in God’s goodness, that she had a strong sense of him throughout her pregnancy. But maybe she didn’t. Maybe she got this strange message from Gabriel and then had very few moments (Elizabeth’s praise upon seeing Mary and Joseph’s dream being the only ones) of feeling seen and known and led by God into this new story that he’d set into motion.
In either case—whether Mary sensed God or not—I’m challenged by her immediate worship of God’s goodness at the announcement of news that, while it meant salvation for the world, meant a very complicated nine months ahead for her. Indeed, her first instinct was to remember the great things God had already done and the character she knew to be true of him based on those acts (Luke 1:46-55). And that fueled her worship of him for what he was going to do—the things she hadn’t seen yet but fully trusted he would accomplish.
That’s been challenging for me. I could certainly praise God for what he’d done. But in a year that’s been harder than I imagined it would be, it’s very hard to worship him for what he will do. To praise God for what he is yet to do is to declare that he knows better than I do what’s best for my life and for those around me (Romans 8:28).
- It’s to declare that he knows better than I do what skills are most needed for the path he’s called me to.
- It’s to declare that he knows better than I do the timing of this.
- It’s coming face-to-face, for the thousandth time, with my lack of control over my life, and with the fact that I’m absolutely at his mercy.
In this hard year, there’ve been days I couldn’t sing the words to praise songs because, though I could see their truth for everyone else, it felt hard to see their truth in my life. In those moments, I let the singing of others--whether in my church or the musician I’m listening to--boost my faith. In other moments, I’ve sung words that don’t feel true as a declaration, hoping that the act of singing them is changing my heart toward belief.
Oriented Toward Praise
Mary seemed to be living in a posture of praise already, before Gabriel visited her—which could be why praise was her first response to his astonishing news. Like her, we can learn to orient our hearts toward praise. As you celebrate Christmas and look toward the coming year, consider adopting a specific worship practice. Here are a few suggestions:
- Write your own psalm (song). Read it out loud or set it to music. Say or sing it each day as an act of worship. Include praise for God’s character and for a past work of his in your life, as well as a request and praise for what he will do in the future.
- Read Revelation 21–22 aloud every day this week. It pictures the end of God’s great plan—one that will be accomplished. Praise him for each mention of what he’ll put right. And praise him for the ways you see him at work, renewing all things, even now.
- Choose one song from a recent church service and sing it every day this week, but also spend time meditating on it, journaling about it, and maybe memorizing it, letting the truth of its words about God root themselves in your heart and mind.
Lisa Schrad was a writer and editor with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship when she wrote this blog post, “Spiritual Disciplines of Advent and Christmas: Worship,” in 2017 for the InterVarsity blog.
This post is excerpted from her longer original post.
Read more on the NCF website about worship, praise and seeking God is the hard times:
Seeking Hope
Christmas: Magnifying Christ
Mid-Pandemic Life Lessons
Dozens of free downloadable Bible studies on many topics.
