Not Feeling It?
The Good News: God doesn't need you to feel the Christmas Spirit.
Your Willingness is Enough.
It is not doing good after that same wonderful manner, that Christ’s example obligeth us unto, but to a like willingness and readiness to do good as far as our power reacheth. ~Edmund Calamy.
If you’re feeling devoid of holiday spirit, you’re not alone. If the world seems too hopelessly mired in darkness to be redeemed by a Christmas miracle, your feelings are understandable. If the hard truth of broken dreams has caused you to lose your faith and capacity for wonder, don’t worry. There is good news: Your opinion is not an obstacle to communion with the Creative Source, Sensitive Soul.
God does not get angry when you don’t feel “the Christmas spirit,” when you avoid religious activities or boycott hymns, because God doesn’t need you to do any of those things. God doesn’t wait for you to work up feelings of faith or prove your worthiness. In God’s time, God supplies all the faith that you require, because faith is God’s work. All that’s required to become one with God is your desire to do so.
Despite being persecuted, Jesus was willing to cooperate with God’s plan. When you consent to becoming an instrument of God’s grace, God can work miracles in you too…if you have a speck of willingness. The practice of Centering Prayer can support you in cultivating willingness.
Centering Prayer is a silent, meditative prayer in which you practice consenting to God…over and over again. It builds your willingness and receptivity for God’s grace through daily practice. In this meditative state, nothing is a distraction; every random thought and upset feeling is welcomed as an opportunity for the renewal of your intention to welcome God’s presence and action in your life.
Exposure to silence on a regular basis offers a kind of universal healing for everybody no matter what their religion--or if they are of no religion.~ Thomas Keating
God’s grace is not dependent on you feeling joyful, holy feelings or performing selfless acts of service. You may feel faithless, miserable, and confused, and God is right there loving you and filling you with grace, if you are willing.
Despite the fragility and unpredictability you experience as part of the human condition, faith reassures you that God’s plan will ultimately prevail in the fulness of time. There’s nothing you can do to earn or lose God’s favor because you are love and you are loved by God. As a creative, divine being, you are lovingly imbued with the agency to create your life as you wish and to experience the natural consequences of your choices without interference:
Faith is doing the next good thing you can think of, even when you’ve been hurt, wronged or unjustly accused. Stay kind.
Faith is following your conscience, even when reason, emotion and popular opinion oppose it. Stay brave.
Faith is not a feeling at all; faith is waiting patiently in the darkness. Stay still.
Silence is God’s first language; everything else is a poor translation. Whatever we say about God is more unlike God than saying nothing. If we do say something, it can only be a pointer toward the mystery that can never be articulated in words. Let love alone speak.
~ Thomas Keating
Have you forgotten God? Even if you have, He has not forgotten you.
~ Moses
If you’re not feeling merry this holiday season, let it be. Let everyone else be who and how they are. Be open to the unexpected miracles with your name on them. Remember, faith isn’t something that you manufacture yourself. Ask for it and you will receive it, in God’s time. It could be the very best gift you give yourself this Christmas.
If all else fails, find humor in the folly and foibles of humanity. Enjoy this little gem sent to me by my friend, Ronnie Rocket.