I'm part of a Facebook group of young clergy women. One of them asked about the "emotions" of Christmas and how we deal with it when we don't "feel it." I can relate. While I have a fairly high Birkman score on the emotional side of things, I am such a control freak that I want to control what emotions I show. I don't tend to be overly dramatic about much of anything without some serious effort. And, Christmas is one season where that is especially so.
I've walked with lots of people in the last few weeks who are experiencing the hard, daunting, painful tasks that life brings. Death. Divorce. Serious illness. Financial crisis. Loss of faith. This year just hasn't seemed joyful and I wasn't quite sure what to do with that. I couldn't force or fake being happy and joyful. And, I'm okay with knowing I don't really have to be.
For this year at least, I have re-framed what Christmas means. I focused on incarnation....the totality of incarnation. Christ came, put on flesh and walked the dusty roads of this broken world in order to live life fully. And, to show us what it means to live life to the fullest. (Seems like John said something about that, too.) Living life fully means Christ experienced heartache, pain, grief, betrayal, hunger, exhaustion and frustration. And yet, we saw how He engaged all of those things. He didn't run from them or try to lessen the effects. He lived fully; He lived faithfully. We see how to walk the journey with trust and hope that one day all will be right.
That day isn't today. And it won't be tomorrow. But, we if we have experienced this world in a more full way (by engaging the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful), we can help walk with others who need to be pointed toward the wholeness we find in God's kingdom which is both now and ever-coming.
This reshaping has helped me make more sense of the current situation I find myself in as I think about what the appropriate "emotions" are for this holy season.
Grace and peace.
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