Mary had to work through the disconnects that come with following the God of the Bible. She helps us understand the challenge when what we know to be true (God’s Word) conflicts with what seems true (the World).

• “How is it possible?” the virgin asks as she wrestles with the implications of carrying the Son of God.
• “A sword will pierce your side” is Simeon’s unwelcome prophetic word to an enthusiastic mom dedicating her baby in the Temple.
• “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” With a growing baby boy, she and her husband leave hearth and home to escape from an infanticidal king.

Carefully watching her faith in action reminds us that cognitive dissonance—the mental tension we experience when circumstances run counter to what we believe—is part of life as God’s disciples. A sense heightened by the great and glorious promise of Immanuel, God with us.

Note this: Being unsettled can actually serve us by causing us to seek the Holy One passionately. When cognitive dissonance brings us to our knees before the throne of grace, we inquire of the Lord, which opens us up to hearing his voice in ways that bring us to what I’m calling kingdom resonance. An undefinable yet concrete assurance that comes with the good news, “Our God reigns.”

Or: Life’s troubles can lead us away from God’s will down paths of despair and denial.

Giving in to Despair

Carl was on fire for Jesus, leading the influential Bible club on campus and serving as class president his senior year. He married and started a successful business, and the couple welcomed a baby boy into the world. Then the wheels fell off. The child was diagnosed with a debilitating condition that meant he would never be able to live on his own. My mom watched as the crisis drained what was left of her older brother’s faith. He not only felt despair, he didn’t know how to deal with it and it consumed them all.

Despair is lament without hope, dissonance without resonance.

Covering with Denial

I think about Carl, now deceased, and the Bible teaching he did or didn’t receive sitting in church during his formative years as a disciple. Did anyone talk about struggles or unpack their life experiences with him? Or did those in the pulpit and pew talk about God like we do at Christmas, all sentiment without rugged realism or relatable humanity?

Denial is hope without lament, resonance without dissonance.

Embracing Your Destiny

Trying to shoehorn what we think we know about God into our ill-fitting experience fails. By embracing our destiny as the children of God, we are led out of narrow confines into the tangible, irreducible reality of Immanuel. By destiny here, I am explicitly echoing Jesus first, and then his apostles.

• But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12).
• The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him (Rom 8:16).

We need incarnation. We need heaven to enter earth, for Jesus to come and pull us into something more true and satisfying. The Bible builds a robust worldview that includes mystery and tension. Mystery because YHWH is Holy, Holy, Holy. Tension because the mind of the Infinite cannot be fully grasped by the finite.

We have a past, we have a future, and we live in the present with lament and hope because our Father moves us from one to the other.

ZAKAR

Zakar is a vibrant Hebrew concept that means to call to mind, to remember. To zakar, biblically, is to rehearse GOD’s Story (past and future) so that you reimagine and reengage with your present circumstances. It is the idea undergirding the Master’s use at the last meal before his crucifixion: This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me (Lk 22:19).

Said another way, practicing zakar is accepting Jesus’ invitation to live life through his eyes. Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Imagine yourself on the water in a scull, an aerodynamic rowboat. The bow faces your destination, and you are in the middle, looking at where you came from. That is zakar. Your faith-response to God’s faithfulness is to propel the craft, to row confidently and consistently.

There is also a picture of repentance here. Each day we get to turn from the ways of men by turning to the ways of God. He is the unseen wind keeping us on course through cognitive dissonance to kingdom resonance.

Mary’s Psalm – Luke 1:46-55

Luke observes how the mother of Jesus cultivated a habit of treasuring and hiding in her heart glimpses of God at work in our world (2:19, 51). That is perhaps the best picture of zakar. She is a role model for those of us desiring to embrace our destiny by staying loyal during life’s trials.

If we listen to her Spirit-song, we will hear from whom she learned the spiritual discipline of moving from dissonance to resonance.

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

God our Savior employs zakar. When he sees us, he remembers his promises and acts according to his mercy. He is both Faithful and the author of all faithfulness.

Mary saw it as she surveyed the rocky history of her people and carefully considered Isaiah’s inspiration to them in exile. Two thousand years later, an enslaved community saw it and responded by writing “Go Tell It On the Mountain.” Today, you and I see it and can proclaim with that great cloud of witnesses, Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!