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Full Color Christmas

“Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year!” Right? If we’re honest, not exactly. But from an early age, we are taught to keep our negative emotions out of Christmas, even though what we resist persists; it refuses to lie low. What if, in our attempts to keep the negatives at bay, we actually deepen our hurts and keep ourselves from experiencing the true Christmas story in full color? In this series, we’ll see the full range of human emotions present that first Christmas and learn how to embrace all our ups and downs to discover a deep and rich Christmas.

Striking Gold

Dec 17, 2023

When you’re a kid, finding the joy of Christmas is easy. As we grow older, joy becomes harder to find. It feels risky, naïve, or even unwarranted. How can we open ourselves up to pure joy even though we know the joyful moments never last?

(Holding out for joy without pain means postponing joy indefinitely. God teaches us to embrace joy in the moment that it’s given, as a child would, celebrating the truly worthy gifts of God alongside the negatives that already exist or might come next. Joy does not invalidate the brokenness of our world but already sees it redeemed by Jesus, filling us with gratitude).

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Embracing the Gray

Dec 10, 2023

The angels, who appear throughout the Christmas story, repeatedly instruct people to “fear not!” Which only tells us that there was plenty of fear that first Christmas! While we may try to take the angels' advice and bravely banish all fear from our hearts and minds this time of year, why does scripture also say that fear can be useful to us? In what way?

(We always fear those things that hold power over our lives, so the key is locating where the ultimate power lies. Scripture urges us in our helplessness not to be afraid of the external forces of the world but to fear the ultimate authority: God. Because He is good, our fear of Him results not in terror but trust (childlike fear vs. slave-like fear). We can be relieved and at peace that we’re not in charge of the outcomes, knowing that whether God chooses to change or permit our circumstances, it is in our best interest).

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Seeing Red

Dec 3, 2023

Many of us are taught from an early age that human anger is always imperfect and that it’s wrong to express it, especially at Christmas (Unless you’re trying to find a parking spot at the mall). Is it possible that the stifling of our anger, even at this time of year, is chipping away at our humanity and making us less whole?

(Anger is a reminder that we were created for something better than what we have, that we deserve more than the sinful world we inhabit, and that parts of life in this world just aren’t okay! The trick to anger is allowing ourselves to experience it but not letting it lead us to sin. God shows us an anger in the Bible that is constructive, an anger that leads to positive change, justice, and the wellbeing of those around us, ultimately leading to Jesus’s coming into the world to make things right!)

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Feeling Blue

Nov 26, 2023

Christmas is supposed to be a time full of cheer, smiles, and love, right? Yet, during this time, many of us also feel sad about hurts, losses, and canceled dreams. We try to push the darkness away and refrain from verbalizing it because no one wants to feel unhappy around Christmas. But what if our instincts are backward? What if sadness belongs in our celebration of Christmas?

(There aren’t really negative emotions. Sadness is a helpful emotion that belongs in Christmas because it validates the significance of our losses and reveals the things that we love most. It is an expression of love. God’s grief over a broken creation was key to the incarnation of Jesus. May we also make room for sadness and let it guide us toward the greatest priorities in life).

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