Do you ever feel like God doesn’t care? Someone says, “God is good.” And you respond, “All the time!” And yet part of your heart isn’t tracking. If God really cared, wouldn’t things be better? What do you do when you feel like God doesn’t care?
Think back to the times you’ve made some significant step forward – overcoming a bad habit, developing a new skill, learning a significant new insight, or breaking free from something negative in your past. Did that forward step come when things were easy? We don’t usually grow in comfort, but your troubles lead to transformation.
A wise mentor once told me, “You can never step into the same river twice.” Life happens. You can’t recreate exactly the same good moments, or go back and undo your bad decisions. But since then I’ve learned there’s a way you can change your past – not the facts, but their meaning and their impact on you. And changing your past can change your future.
Few of us, if any, come to Christmas unscathed. The busyness of family and church events, family drama, or wishing for a Hallmark Christmas that never happens can make celebration a struggle. It’s not that hard to understand Scrooge. What’s the point? What can Christmas do for you?
Perhaps you’re too young to remember Elvis’s Blue Christmas, but you may find yourself fighting a serious case of the holiday blues this season. The pictures of families and Thanksgiving feasts on your social media feeds may have left you even more lonely or hurting inside. Your expectations have so often been disappointed – or worse – during past holiday seasons that now you have no idea how to face Christmas without being overwhelmed by the blues.
