"God I am willing" Those are tough words for a lot of us to say even at the best of times and even tougher to truly mean. To be willing to follow wherever God leads is not an easy calling whether it be in a simple everyday tak or in a life altering circumstance.

Mary's willingness to lay down everything and follow God's call is truly remarkable. Inspite of everything that would inevitably follow: the persecution of others, the long months of pregnancy, and the eventual pains of labour. Mary's response to God's call is simple and powerful. "I am the Lord's servant... May it be to me as you have said" (Luke 1:38).

I have often wondered what it would be like to be in Mary's position; a young girl with all my life ahead of me all of a sudden asked to move in a drastically different direction. Would I have been so willing to accept? Would you? Through playing Mary in this Christmas service I have been able to get just a taste of the gravity of Mary's choice to accept this huge calling. I have been able to experience to some extent her dedication to God's call through some really tough circumstances.

Sometimes huge things are asked of us and we just have to be willing to trust and follow God's lead. But we not only have to be willing, we also have to carry the task to completion. "Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it according to your means" (2 Corinthians 8:11). I am sure that there were many times over that 9 months that Mary felt like giving up, that she wondered why she ever agreed to carry the son of God, that she was affraid that she might mess things up. I know it was tough just acting like I was pregnant. But Mary, literally, carried her work to completion.

I know that there have been times in my life where I have wanted to give up on the call I was once so eager and willing to follow. When times were too hard, where God's call seemed impossible to follow, when I faced persecution beyond anything I could have ever imagined. But I was (and am now through playing Mary) reminded that it wasn't about me. That God's work in me was more important than any hardship I might have faced. I realized, and I think Mary did too, that we are called to serve, "not because you must, but because you are willing [...] eager to serve." 1 Peter 5:2.

So the question is.. .Are you willing?

(Rachel Brown attends university in Waterloo, Ontario, and played "Mary" in the drama.)