In 2021, the Walt Disney Company announced plans to build a huge new campus in Florida. This campus would be the new home to several thousand digital technology, finance and product development employees, including imagineers.… most of whom would have to relocate from southern California.
My cousin, who is a visual effects animator for Disney, was one of them. He was told that his job was moving to Florida, and if he wanted to keep his job, he needed to relocate.
That’s not an easy decision, especially when you have a family with young children. He and his family didn’t really want to move to Florida; but, on the other hand, he also really didn’t want to lose his job.
So after talking it over, they decided to move.
So off they went, to start new lives in a new state far away. They didn’t want to move to Florida. It wasn’t a part of their plans. But they felt they had no choice.
It just goes to show that we are not always in control of everything that we want to be in control of. Decisions made by powerful people many miles away can, and sometimes do, cause great disruption to our lives.
As it turns out, after my cousin and his family moved to Florida and got settled in… after they had unpacked, after the kids had made new friends in school… after they had found new doctors and notified everyone of their new address and started to get used to Florida as their new home… after all that, Disney changed its mind. Disney canceled their plans to build a new campus in Florida, and decided to not force the relocation of all those employees.
For those who had already made the move, like my cousin, they were now given a choice: they could stay in Florida, or they could have Disney move them back to southern California.
My cousin’s family decided to stay. They hadn’t wanted to relocate to Florida, but they also didn’t want to make their children go through a second relocation, back to southern California, and start their lives all over. Again.
We think we are in control of our lives. We want to be in control of our lives. But sometimes, what happens in our lives is controlled by the decisions of a handful of extremely powerful people… People who don’t know us, except maybe as a number, one number out of thousands. Or millions.
Even in the United States of America, “the land of the free,” one decision made in the office of a company executive or government official could change our lives in an instant.
Now, it is true that my cousin could have just given up his job at Disney in order to stay in California. He had that choice. But what a choice.
I don’t know for certain, but I imagine that was an extremely difficult and unwanted choice for his family, and all the other families caught in that same situation, to make. Maybe, in their minds, giving up their job was not a choice at all, that they had no choice, but to move to Florida.
When Caesar issued his decree that every person must return to their hometown for a census, no matter how far away, or how long of a journey that would require, refusing to go was not in any way a choice. It wasn’t an option……
Why did Caesar do this? Why did he issue that decree, and organize a census?
For Caesar, a census was a way of determining what his assets were. He wanted to know how much he could tax, and how much he could extract from the people of the Empire in terms of resources and manpower.
A census like this wasn’t done often, and when it was, it was often a precursor to war. A ruler contemplating war needed to know first how strong he was, how strong his army was, and what resources he had available to him that could support the cost of going to war.
Jesus himself once said to the crowds that followed him: “What king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand?”
Jesus said that. So, a census was a way of finding out how strong one was, before deciding to wage war.
So, not only was a census a pain in the butt for people like Joseph and Mary, forcing them to travel, no matter how far, no matter how inconvenient; a census also raised anxiety levels, as the people wondered if, perhaps, war was in their future.
For the people of Galilee, they were already an occupied people, with Roman soldiers marching the streets, maintaining order by stifling free speech, restricting rights, limiting freedom…
And now, a census! What could possibly be next? Nothing good could come out of this…
If only they could have control over their own lives, determine their own future… and not simply follow the orders and decrees of kings and emperors who couldn’t care less about their needs, their dreams, their hopes for the future…
So that’s the mood that existed in the days leading up to the census. Apprehension. Resentment. Fear. And weariness.
Those feelings were already present among the people, even before the census. The census just made it worse. The census just made things more difficult. And the census was a great interruption to the lives of people like Joseph and Mary, forcing them on a journey, to a place they didn’t want to be.
And it has me thinking of other stories of people who suddenly found themselves in a place they did not want to be, in circumstances that they would not have chosen for themselves, if that choice was theirs to make. One moment they’re living a quiet, peaceful life; and the next, they find themselves uprooted, forced to go far from home, forced to venture down a path they did not choose.
Like Frodo Baggins, from Lord of the Rings. He didn’t really want to go to Mordor. He didn’t want to be the one to take the ring on that long journey. This wasn’t the life he had planned. It wasn’t what he dreamed of. It was difficult, it was dangerous, and it made him long for home.
Frodo said: “I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had ever happened.”
But Gandalf, the wise wizard, replied: “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
I can’t imagine that Mary and Joseph were happy with this decree that came from Rome, ordering them to travel. I can’t imagine that anyone was happy about it.
We read the story, and we feel sorry for Mary and Joseph, especially since it all happened while Mary was pregnant.
But I don’t see anywhere in the story where Mary and Joseph feel sorry for themselves, or where they complain about their situation. They didn’t have time to feel sorry for themselves, and complaining wouldn’t accomplish anything. Once Caesar issues his decree, there’s no arguing with it. If Caesar says go, you go.
Fortunately, they knew that their inconvenience and hardship was not without purpose. Mary knew that her child would be the “Son of the Most High.” There was a purpose to it all.
Are you able to see the purpose in your hardship, in your inconvenience, in those times when you find yourself someplace other than where you want to be? If you can’t see the purpose, the meaning of it all, are you at least able to trust God, to bring about something good from a situation you don’t want to be in?
It reminds me of the biblical story of Esther. There she was, living a quiet, peaceful life, with her cousin Mordecai, when one day, she’s summoned to the king’s palace. The king had summoned her and many other girls, in the hopes of finding one who would be his new queen.
The king chose Esther. When Esther was chosen to be the new queen, she didn’t have a choice. She wasn’t given a say. In this part of the story, Esther doesn’t say a word.
But then, later, there comes a moment when the fate of her people rests on her shoulders. As queen, she now has the power to save them, if she can find the courage to do so.
To help her find her courage, her cousin Mordecai says to her: “Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”
When things don’t go the way you want… When you find yourself in a place where you don’t want to be… When it seems you’ve lost all control over the direction of your life and circumstances you find yourself in…
Can you have the faith and the courage to see that, even in this undesirable place, this place where you don’t want to be…
…that there may be a purpose to your life, that God can use you even in your present circumstance, as unwanted as that circumstance may be?
Can you find meaning there, where you are at?
On the way to Bethlehem… on the way to Mordor… in a royal palace a long way from home… or even, God forbid, in Florida.
(Hey, I’m from California, I have to make fun of Florida!)
I do not believe that God is the cause of every bad thing that happens to us. I don’t believe that “everything happens for a reason,” as some like to say. Some things don’t happen for a reason, or at least, not any good reason. Some of the things that happen in this world are certainly contrary to God’s will. They’re not what God wants, and they’re not what we want.
But in every situation you find yourself in, God can work in you and through you for something good. And in fact, in every situation, no matter how bad, no matter how unwanted, there is something good that only you can bring to that situation.
You—with your unique gifts and talents and abilities—are uniquely suited to do what God wants you to do, to bring healing
and wholeness
and hope
in a way that only you can, no matter what circumstances you find yourself in.
So even when Rome is in charge
When Caesar is calling the shots
When nothing is as you would like it to be
When you’re a long way from where you want to be
There is still hope.
There is still hope, because you are still here, still present, in the world, to do what only you can do, and be who God created you to be.
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