What do we do when the most wonderful time of the year doesn’t feel so wonderful?
I have found that holidays seem to amplify daily struggles. It may be that we are busier than usual, but I think it’s also because we have expectations of happiness, peace, and perfection – standards that we don’t require our every-day lives to meet.
We have these hopes that just for a moment life will balance in perfect peace and harmony, you know, like they do in the Hallmark Christmas movies. We want our meals to look Instagram perfect, and our Christmas craft projects to make it on Pintrest, and not be a Pintrest fail.
So with all this pressure, it’s not surprising that we struggle during the holidays.
What’s your top holiday struggle?
My biggest struggle at Christmas is remembering why we are celebrating and how that connects to my every-day life.
To be honest, it gets lost under the mad dash of secret Santa presents, real presents, school programs, parties, decorating, luncheons, get-togethers, and the pressure to somehow stay in budget. (Why is there math in Christmas?)
My joy gets lost in the busyness and I have trouble remembering that Christmas really is about Jesus coming, experiencing life in this broken world, and making a way for us to be in relationship with God.
God opened the folds of time and stepped into our world as one of us. It’s unheard of. It’s mind-blowing. And yet, even as I’m writing this, it feels far away.
But far away was the last thing on Jesus’ mind.
He came to be with us.
We have an enemy that works overtime to make us feel isolated, misunderstood, abandoned. Who knows that when we feel alone and vulnerable, we are more apt to listen to his lies.
We were made for connection and intimacy, so when we feel alone it is easy for our hearts to make this false conclusion: I am not known, therefore I am not loved.
Jesus is with us, out of love for us, to draw us into relationship with Him. In Jesus we are known, loved, connected—the very things we were created to experience.
So when Christmas is difficult, breathe in deep, look at the sweet baby in the manger and speak this beautiful truth: I am loved. I am not alone.
He came for you, my friend.