Many timeless Christmas Carols encourage us to sing joyfully about the birth of the Saviour, Jesus. Upbeat songs, with merry bells, and glad lyrics all pronouncing the joy and excitement of the Reason for the Season. Many count the days on the calendar until they begin the tradition of listening and singing these songs. Maybe this has historically been you. Yet for some, they enter into this Christmas season feeling burdened by various weights. We don’t magically get to enter Christmas and shed the weights in our hearts that we’ve been carrying in November. Weights like grief, loneliness, trauma, relationship challenges, unfulfilled longings, depression, and anxiety. These enter the season with us, and at times we don’t feel like singing these glad songs in our homes and churches.
For many making their way through this hurting world, it can feel difficult to express the love, joy, and peace that the Christmas Carols sing about.
This can be made even more challenging by the explicit and implicit pressures many feel during December. Holiday Culture looks sparkly and bright, and carries with it the expectation to joyfully and with robust energy, engage in all of the Holiday traditions. The Church, in its message to joyfully proclaim our Saviour’s birth, can implicitly put pressure on people to hide the painful and heavy emotions they’re carrying with them at Christmas time. This pressure can make people feel even more silent and alone during this loud and merry month.
If this feels like you this Christmas season, you don’t need to engage in all the traditions. Breathe a sign of relief. It’s okay if rejoicing doesn’t look as merry or sound very loud this Christmas. It’s still a worthwhile celebration if participating in Christmas looks more restful and contemplative this year. There is beauty and hope found in the truth that Jesus entered into our broken world to save it. He knew the state of brokenness he was entering into, and he entered it anyway – not to bring more pressure and performance expectations, but rather to bring comfort, healing, and hope to weary hearts.
Be encouraged. Jesus meets you where you’re at this Christmas. He is calling you to give Him the expectations placed on you during this Season and just to be who you are and how you are.
You are not alone this Season. LifeCare Centres is here to support you with warmth, understanding, and a safe space to talk through whatever emotions you’re carrying into the season.
Bowmanville & Pickering
905-231-2273
✉️ info@lifecarecentres.ca
