Hi Friends,

Welcome to week 2 of our Advent series for those overcoming spiritual anxiety.

We left off last week with the angel Gabriel visiting Mary.

At the end of his message, the angel seems to leave Mary with a subliminal hint: he mentions Elizabeth. And then he is gone.

What does Mary do when she’s had the kind of spiritual encounter that turns her whole life upside down?

Without skipping a beat, she runs straight to her friend.

The Bible says she hastens to her.

Yes, Mary travels to the house of Elizabeth, and it’s like she can’t reach her soon enough.

From the very moment she walks through the door, the two women are calling out to one another. They have both just had the biggest spiritual experiences of their lives, and their holy reaction is to share their stories.

Now, this was no drop-in visit where you mind your manners for an hour and avoid any elephants in the room.

Mary and Elizabeth live together for three months.

You don’t tip-toe around topics for three months. These two needed one another too deeply and stayed side-by-side too long to keep up any pretenses.

For three months they lock arms, prepare meals, care for the household, and share their experiences.

Mary has just been told she will bear the Son of God. How will Joseph respond? Will her friends see her as an adulteress? The law says she must be stoned.

There’s so much on the line, and with three months together, I imagine they share all their hopes and all their fears.

They bear one another’s burdens.

Maybe somewhere in your Christian journey you’ve picked up the idea that solitude is more holy than community.

Maybe you’ve believed that silence honors God more than openness.

Maybe an oversized fear of gossiping keeps you guarded.

Perhaps we’ve gotten a bit off somewhere and a healthy practice of solitude became instead a pattern of isolation and self-preservation.

It’s time for us all to take the angel’s subliminal hint.

It’s time to hasten to one another and re-orient toward authenticity.

We are not meant to live with high-walled hearts, keeping in what’s sure to be messy.

We are meant to run to the safety of friends, to tip the cup of our hearts over and let what’s inside — what’s real— spill right on out. The good, the bad, the mess.

I love the purposeful mention of Elizabeth to Mary at the end of her encounter. It’s like God knew she’d be left standing alone with the question, “well, what now?”

God is so kind.

Yes, He’s always been like this… sending us to one another. In fact, it is His very first statement about the nature of human beings:

”It is not good that man should be alone”.

Who do you need to run to? What do you need to say?

Let any heaviness of performance or fear lift off your shoulders.

Perhaps a light heart waits for you just where it did for Mary. When you hasten to your friend, open your mouth, and begin to share your story.

– Anna