"Get a life!" You've heard the phrase. It’s spoken to people who are wasting their lives on trivial, inane pursuits. We say it to picky people who are so lost in tiny things that they miss the big things of life. We say it to people who have their values reversed--giving lots of energy to things that don't deserve it and ignoring the things that matter most. It’s what you feel like saying to Ebenezer Scrooge at the start of Dickens’s classic tale. “Get a life.”

Get a life! What kind of a life will we get? What kind of a life do we want to get? What kind of a life can we get? Too many of us settle for mediocrity, for a life of banal pursuits and questionable purposes--when we are invited to live a life that is filled with a joy and satisfaction beyond any we could imagine! Our days pass quickly. If we aren't careful, life will move past us before we know it. That's what happened to Scrooge, but he got a second chance. He saw clearly the consequences of the life he was leading, and it scared a change right into him.

In Scripture the account of Mary shows us how we can indeed get a life by demonstrating for us the best way to respond to God. Unlike Scrooge, however, for Mary, she had already been following the Lord.

We read in Luke's Gospel: In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 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 Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" The angel answered, "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. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God." "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her (Luke 1:26–38).

I. Change comes when we receive God's Word with humility

She was dumbfounded by the angel Gabriel's visit (Luke 1:29). Then she heard the message that she would conceive and give birth to the Messiah, she responded, "I am the Lord's servant; may it be to me as you have said" (Luke 1:38). She simply accepted God's plan and her role in it. She exhibited neither the pride of worthiness, nor the pride of protest. She realized that God was God and that he had every right to work as he saw fit.

Humility knows how to say, "I am a servant," without degrading itself. Humility knows how to say, "I was wrong," without self-despising. Humility knows how to say, "Please forgive me," without groveling. Humility knows how to say, "Let me have another chance to make things right."

When Scrooge awoke from his sobering encounter with the spirits of Christmas, he humbled himself and retraced the steps of his offenses committed on Christmas Eve. As he did, he revealed a remarkable change of heart.

(SHOW VIDEO CLIP.) Scrooge’s awakening on Christmas Day

The promise of the gospel is that God makes us new creations! We are not self-made people, but God-made people. It makes me think of what Paul wrote in II Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" We are qualitatively different people because of the power of the gospel. Sometimes, however, we have to reach the end of ourselves in order to realize this. That's was happened to John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

Rockefeller determined early to earn money, and drove himself to the limit. At age 33, he earned his first million dollars. At age 43, he controlled the biggest company in the world. At age 53, he was the richest man on earth and the world's only billionaire.

Then he developed a sickness called alopecia, which caused his hair to fall out and his eyelashes and eyebrows to disappear, and he was shrunken like a mummy. His weekly income was one million dollars, but he could digest only milk and crackers. He was so hated in Pennsylvania that he had to have bodyguards day and night. He did not sleep, did not smile, and did not enjoy anything in life.

The doctors predicted he would not live over one year more. The newspaper had gleefully written his obituary in advance--for convenience in sudden use. One sleepless night set him thinking. He realized with a new light that he "could not take one dime into the next world." Like Scrooge, he learned that money is not everything.

The next morning found him a new man. He began to help churches with his amassed wealth, not overlooking. He established the Rockefeller Foundation, whose funding of medical researches led to the discovery of penicillin and other wonder drugs. John D. began to sleep well, eat, and enjoy life. The doctors had predicted he would not live over age 54--he lived to 98.

(Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, Rockville, MD: Assurance Publishers, 1979, #852)

The second principle we learn from Mary is that God's power works through our availability, not our ability.

II. Change comes when we make ourselves available to God

Mary did not claim any merit for herself. There has been much speculation about her, but the Bible gives an extremely lean amount of information. From what we read in the Bible, it is clear that God took the initiative to work in and through Mary. She simply made herself available as the servant, or (as the King James Version says) “the handmaid” of the Lord.

This gives us great hope and a clear purpose. We need not spend all our time anxiously striving to "make something of ourselves." Our greatest purpose is simply to make ourselves available to God. We can willingly serve God, knowing that God's lowest servants are greater than this world's highest leaders.

Would you like to be used by God?

You see, the problem isn't that we think too much of ourselves. The problem is that we think too little of ourselves. And we think too little of what God wants to do through us, if we will only be available to him.

III. Change comes by faith, when we believe that nothing is impossible with God.

One of the greatest lies about Christianity is that you have to be good enough to be loved by God. But we may be sad, broken, hurting people, just trying to get by. What could ever change our lives?

It's not a “what” but a “Who!” The truth is that God loves us. God loves us just the way we are--but he also loves us too much to leave us as we are. He wants to change our lives in ways we can never imagine. He wants to give us gift that are "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (Eph. 3:20). "For nothing is impossible with God" (Luke 1:37).

Jesus Christ came to earth because God believes you and I are worth it! We often emphasize the need to believe in God--and I will never minimize that. But it’s also incredibly true that God believes in us! Jesus Christ proves it. God believes we are of infinite value, and he sent his own Son on our behalf.

My prayer for this series has been that Christmas would be a time for you to realize your value and, like Scrooge, to celebrate miracle transformations. You see, the annual retelling of stories like Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol should not be limited to a fictional account. It ought to be a part of real life, as well. We ought to be able to annually share with one another how God is transforming our humbug attitudes into hallelujah dispositions. This becomes a way of identifying contemporary Christmas miracles. You might want to do that publicly in a worship service or smaller gather, through a testimony. Or you might want to simply express your thoughts in a thank-you note to Jesus.

A few days after Christmas, some people may start asking you how your Christmas went. This time, think before your usual reply: “It was OK.” Be ready to tell your friends why this year’s celebration was special. Share your hallelujah experience, and in doing so, encourage them to anticipate journeying from humbug to hallelujah next year.

Have you given up on trying to get a life? Have you given up on hoping positive change could happen in your life? Have you given up on hoping for positive change in the life of one you dearly love, or someone you see in great need? Don't give up! Humility, availability, and faith--these are the keys to a getting a Life--Life with a capital L. Don't give up--because God hasn't.

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