Yesterday, I was in the check out line at a store and listening to the song they were playing. I liked it. I started to move a little bit to it. Then I realized that it was a Christmas song that sounded like a pop song and felt like I was being tricked! I am not ready for the holidays and here this song was sneaking its way into my heart and body. Sneaky song.
As we head into the holiday season, I want to remind you that the holidays can be wonderful and terrible at the same time. Moments of joy and thanksgiving are often mixed with sadness and loss.
Jesus allowed himself to feel emotions, all of them. He mourned. He loved. He was thankful. He knew that there was time for all of them and that they often overlap.
Ecclesiastes 3:4 says,
“There is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,” Ecclesiastes 3:4 NIV
This year, give yourself permission to feel all the emotions the upcoming season will bring. Ask Jesus to be with you and show you how. As you give the emotion space to exist, you give it permission to move through you instead of being stuck in you.
You have to feel it, to heal it.
And the first step is to give yourself permission to feel.
