Just as Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Christmas season, Black Friday reveals the stress of it. People grab their Christmas lists early on Friday morning to scramble around malls and big box stores to make their cash go as far as possible for the holiday. And every year we hear reports of men fighting over shoes, clerks getting their hair pulled over TVs, and parking lot altercations over the toy-of-the-year.
Most of us will not bully someone over a pair of Beats, but all of us understand the unique stress of the season. As a pastor, my crisis counseling goes way up every year during the Christmas season. Here are five simple suggestions that I share with people who are hurting during the holidays.
Return to Jesus before Celebrating Him
Not all stress is self-inflicted, but some of the worst of it is. We make decisions on top of decisions that eventually lead us away from God and His calling on our life. The Christmas season does not create trouble; it just shines light on the trouble we have already created. We cannot change our history, even our most recent history, but we can start where we are, confess our sins, receive God’s forgiveness, and return to Jesus before trying to celebrate His birth.
Prefer Humans More than Hopes
Like kids, there are some things we really, really want for Christmas. It may be a gift, a relationship, or an experience, but whenever we value that thing more than the people around us, bad things happen. When we have the mind of Christ, on the other hand, we will forfeit our rights, privileges, and preferences to serve others. We will give help, forgive offenses, and pray for others with our greatest hope set on the glory of Jesus.
Reset the Expectations
The setting for first Christmas was a borrowed stable among a peasant family who was far away from home. In short, it was no winter wonderland. No one was sipping hot cocoa with Bing Crosby in the background. Jesus entered a messy place filled with messy people who needed life, hope, joy, and peace. We reset our expectations when we stop trying to create a perfect Christmas experience and instead help family, friends, and neighbors look through the imperfect prism of our lives to see and experience a perfect Savior.
Read the Bible Again
The wonder and joy of Christmas are discovered, not in the classic movies, but in the pages of Scripture. So read Matthew and Luke’s accounts of Jesus’ birth. Read Paul’s hymn in Philippians 2. Read Revelation 21. When our feelings fool us and our circumstances disappoint us, the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to renew our hope in God once again.
Do What Needs to be Done
The pressure of Christmas can paralyze us. Sometimes people fear they cannot measure up to all the expectations, so they hide either in bed or in busyness. Either way, they ultimately fail to keep their basic commitments. Because they cannot do everything, they do nothing, and everyone loses. Our life in Christ, however, compels us to live courageously and to act responsibly so that we may accomplish the ministry we have been given (Colossians 4:17).
Christmas celebrates the coming of the One who “is before all things, and by Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). And since Jesus holds all things together, then His sovereign care of our hearts, our hopes, and our hurts fills even the difficult seasons with sustaining peace.
