For many of us, 2022 seems to be going out with the proverbial bang…sickness, loss, stress, distance from loved ones…you name it. It might not be true for everyone but that’s who I’m writing to, the ones wrestling to find joy this season. Many I know are struggling right now...2022 was not the come-back year we were hoping for, and that pain is disappointing. We powered through the cliffhangers and somehow, we’re still in the middle of a i-don’t-even-know-what-to-call-it ‘thing’.
As I sit here running through the list of seemingly never-ending shake-ups, wake-ups, break-ups, lay-offs, health scares, relationship fractures, accidents, unspokens and unknowns that have happened in the lives of my loved ones this year, I can honestly say…this (once again) Christmas is hard.
When we’re struggling or suffering even a little bit, good news feels harder to digest.
We are holding our breath while trying to mouth ‘everything is great’. Maybe it feels like someone or something is missing - like things may never be the same again. Disappointment at Christmas is disorienting, making you feel like a bystander on the side of the road watching a celebratory parade pass right in front of you. At the most joyful time of year, our faces are stolid. Life is going on all around us…with much ado for some (thank God! Keep spreading that joy, friends!) while some on the sidelines are just relieved to have found somewhere to sit.
Two days ago, we endured winter solstice - the day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere with the shortest daylight hours. It’s one of my favorite days of the year because I can always say ‘we made it!’ afterwards. We made it through the 'darkest day' of the year! While most of us are thrilled that we will get an additional minute or two of daylight progressively until mid-June, the trade-off is the beginning of significant temperature drops over the next few weeks. Doesn’t make much sense, does it? Why can’t we have a bit more daylight AND a bit more warmth? Why can’t it be ‘all up from here!?’ What do you mean we can’t have our cake and eat it too? Welcome to life in the real world…amIright?
So, two days ago was winter solstice and two days from now is Christmas, and in a week…2023 will arrive. Some are already proclaiming a good riddance to 2022!
What are we do to in this ‘in between’? Well, if joy can be found in anything, it’s this:
Sometimes when things get better it happens in such small increments that we don’t notice it until we’re in the middle of the summer of our lives. If you did notice, congratulations are in order because you’ve made it through the darkest day. Either way, there is joy to be found now.
Sometimes when things get better there is a temporary trade off. We can’t seem have it both ways…but yet again, there is joy to be found now.
Sometimes things will stay the same for a while but that is rare. Here’s what’s important to know…there is still joy to be found now.
This may be the Christmas season or the year that changes it all, if we allow it to change our hearts, our hopes, and our expectations.
Internal change doesn’t look like much of a party on the outside - it usually looks a lot like wrestling.
May this Christmas be known as the one that shifted our perspective on life…a paradigm-shift of sorts…that maybe it started out a little rocky, cold and dark but ended up with a smidge more light in it…and a lot more warmth. Day by day. A spark of joy. A thrill of hope. A weary world that is dying to rejoice for something!
If our perspective is that God has been with us all year through hardship and sustained us, we realize that there is one more person here with us even if someone else is missing. We realize we have room for Him this year. In our heads, our hearts, and our homes. We have joy because we have something no one can take away - peace in the storms of this life and access to the creator of the universe. The one who promises to hear every prayer we pray and to make a way where there seems to be no way. We can unabashedly cling to hope…hope that things will get better because we know no matter how bad life gets…if it’s bad, it’s not the end! God works all things together for our good for those who believe.
This is the world that the creator of the universe humbled himself and came into…the very same one we find ourselves in today.
A broken world filled with loss and disappointment and fractures and sickness. A world that didn’t have room for him. A world that missed Him when he was walking amongst them. The same is true today…He is Immanuel God with us - even during those times we question His existence or presence. Our questions don’t deny reality. Our questions can be the key to a far better reality we ever hoped for.
We would not be able to say this without Christ coming to us on Christmas Day.
That’s the gift. That’s the joy - access to the creator of the universe was granted to US. He humbled Himself not for his sake, but ours. We could hold him. Talk with him. Reason with him. Face-to-face. Remember the rare gift and trait of humility this Christmas. Accept the disappointment you're experiencing for what it is - the pain of living in a broken world…with broken people with broken promises, even if we're looking no further than the mirror.
But don't stop there. Give yourself the most redeeming gift of your life…open yourself up to the possibility that there is more, just around the bend. Someone that’s been with you this year you hadn’t considered much before. There’s someone who is standing on the outside asking if you’ve got room for him this year. He comes to us not asking to be served, but to serve us…with answers to our questions and gifts that no other person can truly give…joy, peace, hope, faithfulness, gentleness, love…dare I add, answers to our prayers.
If you struggle to find joy this Christmas season or this year, I pray a new reality for you in 2023. I pray that your heart embraces humility, that your wrestling turns to rest, and that your disappointment turns to rejoicing. I pray all the empty places of your life become filled with Light…because that’s what light does…and His light never goes out, no matter how dark it gets or how long the darkness seems to last.
Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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