Saying Yes Without the Whole Plan
Daily Scripture
Luke 1:34-38
“Then Mary said to the angel, ‘How will this happen since I haven’t had sexual relations with a man?’ The angel replied, ‘The Holy Spirit will come over you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the one who is to be born will be holy. He will be called God’s Son. Look, even in her old age, your relative Elizabeth has conceived a son. This woman who was labeled “unable to conceive” is now six months pregnant. Nothing is impossible for God.’ Then Mary said, ‘I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me just as you have said.’ Then the angel left her.”
Daily Reflection & Prayer
Mary asks a fair question. How will this happen? A virgin becoming pregnant needs an explanation, and she wants one. There’s real cost buried in that question too. An unmarried, pregnant girl in her culture faced public shame, a broken engagement, maybe worse. The angel never answers the how. He tells her the Spirit will come over her, tells her Elizabeth is six months pregnant after years of infertility, and tells her nothing is impossible for God. Her real question, the mechanics of how, goes unanswered. What she gets instead is who is doing this, and permission to trust him without the details first.
Saying yes without a full plan isn’t only a parenting problem. It shows up any time you commit to something bigger than you can predict. Raising a child is one version of it. So is caring for an aging parent, saying yes to a call to serve, staying in a friendship through a season neither of you can explain yet, or committing to a church or a marriage before you know exactly what it will ask of you later. God rarely hands over the whole plan up front. What’s given instead looks a lot like what Mary got, evidence that God has done this kind of thing before, and enough reason to trust him with the rest. Mary answers, “let it be with me.” She says this before she knows whether Joseph will stay, before she knows what her town will say, before she has any idea how the next nine months will go. Her yes commits her to consequences she can’t see the end of yet. That’s the same kind of yes required of anyone who commits to something bigger than they can plan for.
- Where in your life right now, with a child, a parent, a friendship, a calling, are you being asked to say yes before you have the whole plan? What’s kept you from answering so far?
- Mary got evidence, not an explanation, and that was enough for her. What’s something God has already done in your life that could carry you through that decision? Tell someone about it this week instead of keeping it to yourself.
Prayer
God, I don’t often get the explanation I’m looking for before you ask something of me. Give me Mary’s kind of yes, one that can ask an honest question and still trust you with what I can’t see. Whatever you’re asking me to say yes to right now, help me trust you with the parts I can’t plan for. Amen.
GPS Insights
Angie McCarty
Angie McCarty serves as the Location Pastor for Resurrection Spring Hill.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus…
The Hail Mary is one of the best-known prayers in the Catholic tradition. Much of the prayer comes from the Gospel of Luke, when the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she has been chosen to carry the Christ child. Mary is an important figure for Catholics, but she has something to teach all of us. Because honestly, Mary’s first response to Gabriel is incredibly relatable.
The angel tells her she’s going to become pregnant. Mary, being a reasonably intelligent young woman, knows how pregnancy happens. She also knows she hasn’t done the thing that generally leads to pregnancy. Her response is: How will this happen??
Or, translated into modern vernacular: Ummmm…WHAT? You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m not ready for this.
And yet, after her very reasonable moment of panic, Mary eventually responds, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me just as you have said.” I have to believe there was some time between those two responses. Maybe an hour. Maybe a day. Maybe Mary needed to go for a really long walk. Because Mary had a plan.
She was betrothed to Joseph. She presumably expected to get married, build a life together, have some children, and do all the ordinary things young couples do. Then God showed up and dramatically rearranged the itinerary.
How do you do when your plan doesn’t go according to plan?
I’m happy to say I’ve become much more flexible than I was as a young, newly married pastor. Looking back, I think anxiety often showed up in my life disguised as a desperate need to control every circumstance. I wanted a plan, I wanted everyone to follow the plan, and I wanted the plan to work exactly as I had envisioned it. When it didn’t, I had absolutely no idea what to do next.
Thankfully, life has a way of softening us.
These days, when something goes sideways, I’m much better at taking a deep breath, considering my options, asking wise people for advice, and reminding myself that the world will probably continue spinning even though my plan has been ruined. I try to give myself the same grace I imagine Mary needed in that moment between “How will this happen?” and “Let it be with me.”
We rarely know how our plans will unfold. Sometimes they unfold beautifully. Sometimes they take a detour. Sometimes they seem to drive directly into a ditch. But through every twist, turn, detour, and unexpected pregnancy announcement, God is there.
Maybe faith isn’t about having a perfect plan. Maybe it’s about learning to say, “Okay, God. This is definitely not what I had in mind…but let’s see what you’re doing here.”
