When Your Reality Changes, Stay Positive

“You have always had a habit of squawking about things that don’t matter,” Ed said yesterday. Everybody replaces a dead battery, doctors a sick pet if they have one, and has found an income source disappeared on them. You need to lighten up and keep smiling into a mirror until it cracks, and then get a new one and start smiling in it again.

He said that my attitude is warped by too much church attendance and prayer. He believes I have missed the truth that I’m not living in heaven, and that I am not God and cannot control what happens by praying. Life is often a pain in the butt, and I should know that by my age.

I agree with Ed that reality is like changing weather: circulating around from calm, bright, and warm, to cold, dark and bleak. Life is about change, and some changes are so small they go unnoticed. Some changes are life-shaking. Reality might be defined as the choices we make as we live each day. How will we act or react to the expected and unexpected events that come our way?

As we live, do we want to find the favor of God and others? The angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary because she was highly favored, and the Lord was with her. The angel said to her: “Do not be afraid, Mary. You will be with child and give birth, to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the, Most High. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the, Most High will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Nothing is impossible with God.”

Mary might have reacted to the angel’s words in any number of ways. His words were life-changing for her. They held both promise and danger. She could choose to accept the angel’s words or reject them. What she heard could have been received as highly unlikely. Then again, most days do not include a personal visit from the angel Gabriel.

As humans, we often are stuck in what seems possible to us and what seems impossible. Zechariah a priest at the temple refused to believe when an angel of the Lord told him: “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.”

Zechariah, asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years.”

The angel answered, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I

have been sent to speak to you and tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time.”

We do not know what God has planned for us in our lives. Mary told the angel that she was the Lord’s servant and that it needed to be as God intended for her. Who will we serve in our choices each day? Will it be God, others, or ourselves?

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