In the familiar gospel story, Mary, newly pregnant, makes haste to see her cousin Elizabeth, who is surprisingly pregnant in her advanced years. We all need an Elizabeth.
You know their sons: Jesus and John, cousins, due to miraculous births. Mary knows that she has been given a mission, a future, and a sacred purpose beyond anything her own life drama could write or imagine. Why? Because she had experienced a “Theo drama,” in which God invited her to a task too large for a young Jewish girl to imagine on her own. Her response? “Let it be to me as you have said, I will set aside my own ego drama for something you intend for my life and through my life to the entire world.” Theos, of course, is the Greek word for God.[1]
Mary reaches out to someone else who has found her role in step with God at the opposite season of life to the teenage girl. Elizabeth has also seen her purpose in the larger drama of God’s explosive plan for the universe: “For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” Before John the Baptist and Jesus knew their sacred purpose, two women, mothers both, young and old, were overcome by the drama of God’s call and purpose for their lives. Two women, neither highly educated nor socially prominent, set aside their own plans and accepted a larger plan for them and through them.
We all need an Elizabeth.
I could go on for a long time on all the implications. Here are three simple observations:
- Not one of us comes to this moment in our spiritual journey alone. Someone came before you—a mother or father, friends, a mentor, a pastor, or leader, perhaps a coach, a grandparent whose story you might know more than you even knew them. Mary went with haste to see Elizabeth. I can only imagine why: for encouragement, validation, celebration, and spiritual companionship. We all need an Elizabeth.
- We are all prone to live out of our finely developed personal narrative, limits and all. But God intends to surprise us with something more, deeper, and richer as God sends messengers (angels) to bring us an invitation. Jesus said it most simply: follow me. We all need God’s messengers to bring us a word. I have not experienced an angel as did both Mary and Elizabeth. My messengers look more like people I know and love, people who know me well and are companions on the journey. We all need an Elizabeth. Who is yours?
- A conversion is required. Not necessarily a walk to the altar in a church, but maybe that. Not necessarily a moment of being knocked off a horse like Saul, who becomes the apostle Paul. Not walking on water as Peter, but…there is a turning from our reading of our life. A turning toward an embrace of something larger, perhaps that will be revealed and given by God. We all need to make a decisive choice this day to serve and follow.
Practice: What are God’s intentions for your life? I can’t tell you: ask God and ask those who know you well.
- Find your Elizabeth and share your story with her (him). We can’t do this solo.
- Listen for the messengers, whether they are haloed and winged or not. Elizabeth or someone you know well—be alert for a surprising message from God.
- Choose you this day to follow and then do it again tomorrow. You’ll have to set aside your own limited story, but you will receive more than you can imagine.
_______________________________
Keith Anderson, D.Min., is a Faculty Associate for Spirituality and Vocation at VantagePoint3 and President Emeritus of Seattle School of Theology and Psychology and is the author of several books, including Reading Your Life’s Story (IVP, 2016), A Spirituality of Listening (IVP, 2016), and Spiritual Mentoring (IVP, 1999). Keith’s newest book, On Holy Ground: Your Story of Identity, Belonging and Sacred Purpose, will soon be released from Wipf & Stock Publishers. In his writing, teaching, and mentoring, Keith seeks to set a table for people looking to enter the “amazing inner sanctuary of the soul” in the most ordinary and extraordinary moments of life.
[1] Robert Barron, Ego Drama/Theo Drama, You.Tube
