A popular trend in management circles is. ‘Don’t be afraid to say no.’

Don’t try to be everything to everybody. Don’t over commit. Draw boundaries and stick to ‘em.

Saying no is rather easy. We learned it at a young age.

Saying yes, on the other hand, takes a certain skill. And it is a habit worth cultivating, especially when it involves saying yes to God.

The nativity story is one in which its main characters make a habit of saying yes.  First Mary welcomes the angel’s news, then in this Sunday’s Gospel we hear Joseph doing the same thing. They said yes to God in the face of some pretty good reasons to respond otherwise. Mary and Joseph were yes people.

How does this challenge us to do the same? What is God asking us to say yes to? In what ways do we need to emulate the attitude of the holy family, ‘not my will be done, but thy will be done?’

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Reading

The Social Media Gospel - Meredith Gould
Pursuing God's Will Together - Ruth Haley Barton
The Reformation - Diarmaid MacCulloch