With the Christmas season upon us, or perhaps it is more appropriately called the "shopping season", I was looking for a way to talk about this time of year in an engaging fashion. And I came across an article from John Ortberg that was intriguing and encouraging to me. Perhaps you will find it to be a word to help you through a difficult season in life. The character in his writing is Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. We pick up in the midst of a challenging time for Joseph as he contemplates what to do over his "situation."

Being a righteous man, Joseph must have agonized over this dilemma day after day. When the angel came to him, Joseph already knew Mary was pregnant. How did he find out? Mary would have told him. Put yourself in his place. Your fiancée comes to you and says, "I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is I'm pregnant even though we're not married yet. The good news is I haven't been with anybody else. An angel came to me and said, 'Hail Mary, full of grace.' I'm going to have a miracle baby, and all generations will call me blessed. I know it's never happened before, but it's going to happen."
Imagine how she must have protested to him about her innocence. Imagine Joseph's struggle. Most likely his father had arranged the marriage. He probably did not know her terribly well at this point. She seemed to be sincere. But an angel? A virgin birth? No way. So he decides to divorce her quietly. A betrothal was a legal act in that day, so to end it required an act of divorce. That way he could minimize her suffering but maintain his status as a righteous man.
Then God sends a message to Joseph: "After he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream." Why did God make Joseph wait till after he had to think and struggle with all this stuff? Why couldn't an angel come to him ahead of time and explain everything and remove that anxiety?
Is it possible that anxiety removal is not God's number one goal for Joseph—or maybe for you and me? Is it possible that in getting his world turned upside down, in having to struggle between what he thought a righteous man ought to do, and his longing to show compassion to this young girl, maybe Joseph was being prepared by God to come to a new understanding of what righteousness is?
Is it possible there's a ministry of disequilibrium God is allowing to take place in Joseph's life so he'll come to a new era of growth? Is it possible in your life, maybe right now? If you're confused or disoriented or uncertain about something, maybe it's not because you've done something wrong. Maybe you're about to grow. Maybe what you need to do is wait on God and trust God's going to do something in your life you don't even know about yet!

As I said, these words from Ortberg hit home with me. They reminded me once again that God is in the process of creating new growth in my life, growth that I would never have experienced apart from this season of life.

It surely seems that in the darkest of times when our faith is shaken the most, we discover the greater depths of God's grace. While that is a difficult time, it is also a growing time. Perhaps God does His greatest work in the dark & unknown places. Just ask any unborn child. If possible, they would testify of the greatness of God's work.