Confused and Disturbed

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a young woman named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!

Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. - Luke 1:26-28

This is the passage we looked at yesterday in the message. Isn’t there something strangely comforting about Mary’s first reaction to God speaking that she was ‘confused and disturbed‘? I just love that - it feels so freeing, so permission-giving. You mean I don’t have to put on a happy face and pretend that this faith journey is easy or clear or positive all the time?

Mary was honest. Vulnerable. Fresh with her emotions. And the angel, from what we can tell from the text, was not freaked out. The angel did not say, “Pull yourself together!” or “I can’t believe you are not more grateful for God speaking to you!” or even, “That’s not a very honoring response. Let’s do this over again and this time you need to get it right.”

Nope. The angel just pressed in to point out how favored Mary was, confusion and disruption and all.

That means there’s hope for us. We can have ‘negative’ emotions (of course they are not negative - they are just emotions - but our culture and our hearts tell us that they are ‘negative’). They are permitted on this journey. Even honored.

Have you experienced feeling confused or disturbed about what God seems to be up to in your life? How do you react? What might the Spirit be saying to you about this reaction?