Deborah Conner,
Interim Associate Pastor for Outreach
This is how I started the class I recently taught about spiritual health during the holidays.
This time of year is taken up with a lot of stressful, seasonal activity and the expectations that come with it. What might happen if we thought about Christmas in a new way? We can still celebrate in the ways we look forward to, but what might happen if we focused on Advent and saw this as a time of remembrance and hope.
Instead of sweating the small stuff, striving for perfection, people pleasing and hoping the difficult people in our lives will miraculously change into someone they are not, we do have the ability to make choices about how we are going to act and who we are going to be in this season.
Many of us want to capture the magic of our best Christmas ever. We want to go back to something that probably didn’t exist quite the way we remember it. We tend to forget the years the turkey was dry or the pie burned or even how our family bickered and complained. Since the height of the pandemic when we were all separated from one another we have forgotten a lot of things we didn’t like about the holidays.
I hope that you are fortunate enough to have a wonderful family where there are no issues, everyone gets along, and the holiday traditions are filled with joy and laughter. Two out of three on this list would be a gift But we all know that the holidays can be bittersweet. We remember those we loved who are now gone. This year you may be feeling the sting of loss and pain. The way you are feeling may be in direct conflict with the beautiful Christmas decorations and lights, the lively carols, and the perfect families portrayed on social media.
That’s OK. With God’s help we can turn the next month into a time of growth and generosity by practicing our faith through devotion and service. We can cultivate faith by reading the daily Advent devotional that was produced by our Christian Formation staff. We can cultivate health by watching what we eat, how much we drink and how much we rest and sleep. We can practice methods of relaxation, even if it’s just taking a couple of deep breaths before we enter a stressful situation. We can serve food to the hungry, call someone who lives alone, visit the sick, or reconnect with a friend or relative.
There are many ways we can live out our faith and let the Holy Spirit transform us and the season into a wonderful time of preparation for celebrating Christ’s birth. No matter what you are facing this year, I invite you to lean on God, pray daily, and wait with hopeful anticipation. We don’t need Christmas cards, gifts, parties and decorations – as fun as they can be – to prepare us for the greatest gift of all – Jesus Christ.
