Advent – Emotional Pain at Christmas

Emotional pain is the worst. If someone has a broken leg we excuse them for being grumpy; however, when a person has a broken heart we often tell them to suck it up, get over it, or just think positive. On the other side, we can point to our broken leg and expect sympathy. But it is way more difficult to point to a broken heart and expect empathy. Interestingly, every one of us either will be or have been sad, disillusioned, or experienced a huge loss resulting in overwhelming grief. So why aren’t we more compassionate to people who are experiencing the same thing?

It might have to do with capacity or the lack thereof. Everyone wants love and to be loved. Yet when it comes to emotional pain, being vulnerable can be like climbing Mount Everest. (Some can do it; most will not even try.)

Dealing with emotional pain in a healthy manner requires increased capacity. We increase capacity by letting God into our hearts. God is love and his love heals, strengthens, and restores broken hearts. As we think of Christmas this year, many may be experiencing extra layers of emotional pain. We need the message of Christmas’ love like never before.

In the Christmas story is the potential of emotional pain. Joseph’s hopes are dashed upon hearing of Mary’s pregnancy. His dream of a pure virgin wife will never be. Mary’s hope of a big wedding, the special dress, and celebration of family and friends are all gone. These are real losses; grief could easily play a part in their lives.

The stigma of a pregnancy before marriage, while today is not considered serious, it was in that day, a capital offense and punishable with death. Emotional pain is in the Christmas story. It is the story of all our lives. We all have had hopes, dreams, and goals, only to see them dashed. Sometimes it is a fault of our own, sometimes it is because we thought we were doing God’s will, or sometimes it is just life and the tragedies that come with living in a fallen world. But in the midst of this, it is possible to find God and to experience love. In the Christmas story, we see love coming from the angel, we see love coming from Joseph and we see the love of God coming from the Holy Spirit declaring, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35) It gave capacity to Joseph and Mary to accept the circumstances and to make the best of a difficult situation.

This is what we need this Christmas. We need the presence of the Holy Spirit to overshadow us, to come upon us, to live in us - so we can have capacity to deal with our emotional pain or the pain that others are feeling. This capacity is not dependent upon me, my abilities, or even those around me, but upon the presence of the God of love, to fill me, surround me, and to help me with my own personal emotional pain.

Why not invite Jesus, the gift of Christmas, into your emotional pain. It just might become your best Christmas ever.

Sunday Meeting – Join us on Zoom

This coming Sunday, Kootenay Christian Fellowship will have 2 different options to participate in Online Sunday Service and we hope to find you at one of them.  Both will begin at 10:30am:

• Join us on Facebook Live @ Kootenay Christian Fellowship Facebook page; or
• For a more personalized experience where we can view and interact with one another find us on Zoom.

A simple and quick Advance-Registration is required via the link below (Once you pre-register once, you do not need to do it for the proceeding Sundays). If you are not familiar with Zoom, feel free to contact us directly for guidance and we will be happy to help you. 250.352.1722

You must Register in advance for this Zoom meeting (click the link below):

If you did this last Sunday, you do not need to do this step again.

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApd-Gupz0oG9WFCQ_s1Br9pmMyxOtrfYiO

For those who may not have internet availability, use your phone to call in on the Zoom meeting at 1.778.907.2071.  Please do the Advance Registration to access the pertinent information.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

We are looking forward to connecting with you on Sunday if not before.

We look forward to connecting with you there.

You can also find us on YouTube (posted afterwards) at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNT9GnRlN0fPZdvqmaUV_LA

Subscribe to our channel while you are there.

When you visit us on Facebook, like and follow please, here is the link

https://www.facebook.com/kootenaychristianfellowshipnelsonbc

Jim Reimer, Pastor

December 17, 2020