“Sometimes the best action is inaction.”
This is a rare statement for many who have grown up in America with a “can do” attitude.
I was taught that if something is broken fix it.
Yet, the story we read these last two weeks of Advent is the story of God purposefully making someone mute.
Zechariah, the soon to be the father of John the Baptist was made mute because he did not believe the angel Gabriel when he told him that they would have a baby.
Zechariah was a priest. His actions were usually words. This is how Zechariah worked. He read scripture, gave meditations, taught people about the faith.
Yet, from one minute to the next he was made inactive…on purpose…by God.
This story reminds us that there are times that we too need to take a seat out. We too might need to wait instead of act, stay silent instead of speak.
This week I ask each of us to consider where it might be that God is calling us to wait and not act. Where is the place in your life that the best action is inaction?
Where is God calling you to keep quiet instead of speak?
In the case of Zechariah, we will see this week that his silence leads to him being changed.
This week I wonder how inaction might change something?
I wonder how silence could bring about the transformation needed in a relationship, project or place?
In this time of action and doing for others and for God, Jesus calls each of us to keep quiet and come near to the manger and receive the gift of his birth once again in our lives!
May we quiet our lives that they babe might enter in!
See you on Sunday,
Pastor Audrey