Though Christmas time to many is a time to gather, love and share in community, friends and family. There are those who have a difficult time this time of year, those who have lost a spouse, or close family member—any holiday can be a challenge. As a counselor, this has proven to be the most challenging time of year for many, for sure. I am writing this today to bring a new hope, a new perspective on this time of year. People experience loneliness much more during this time. C.S. Lewis quoted: “Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him, everything else thrown in.”

Martha Beck: “Loneliness is proof that your innate search for connection is intact.” So, it’s innate for us as humans to desire connection. Sometimes the only people around us, are ourselves and God. At these times we can enjoy memories of those loved ones still in our lives and focus on walking on. John 14:18 says, ” I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.” This is so true. One of my mother’s favorite songs was: “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Here are the lyrics:

When you walk through a storm hold your head up high

And don’t be afraid of the dark.

At the end of a storm is a golden sky

And a sweet silver song of a lark.

Walk on through the wind,

Walk on through the rain,

Tho’ your dreams be tossed and blown.

Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart

And you’ll never walk alone,

You’ll never, ever walk alone.

Ask Jesus into your heart, it will be the greatest gift that you have ever received or will ever receive. He came to sacrifice His life for our sins, and lost conditions. He lived, died and rose again for your new hope of eternal life! A new hope, a new beginning, and you will never walk alone! Merry Christmas everyone!

Everyone walks through seasons when it may become difficult to keep our trust in the Lord without wavering. I believe that is called being human.

Today is Columbus Day and I was reading some history of Columbus, crashing into a coral reef in Haiti in 1492. Their Christmas day was busy with transferring all the cargo from the Santa Maria onto the other two ships, then to his crew’s surprise, 40 of them were left there to begin a colony called the La Navidad. Sadly, when Columbus came back a year later, not one of them were left. I started thinking, “wow, I thought I had a rough life.” I could not begin to imagine how traumatic it must have been to have been one of those 40 people.

There are times when we have to stand on God’s word in order to continue to keep our trust in Him. Here are some scriptures to listen to and stand on to keep our focus on God:

Psalms 118:8- “It is better to trust the Lord for protection, than to trust someone else, including strong leaders.”

Psalms 46:10-“Our God says, calm down and know that I am God. All nations on earth will honor me.”

Proverbs 3:5,6-“With all your heart you must trust the Lord, and not your own judgement. Always let Him lead you and He will clear the road to follow.”

Sometimes we have to ask Him to help us to remain steadfast, and He will help you in your darkest hour.

Trust God!

There are those who found it to be their life’s quest from childhood to survive, to get up and try again. Resistance at all sides, you fight and struggle and fight yet again! My life was like that. The scripture:” The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Psalms 34:18

These words brought healing to my heart. When we forge the trail out of pain, we need to learn to grieve all the losses, all the disappointments, all the tragic moments, and truly learn to let go, forever, of each crushing moment, or memory, and learn to forgive quickly.

“I could not possibly let go forever of all those painful things-you may say, ” I say to you I would never have been able to let go of all the pain of the past without God’s help. Revelation 12:11(NKJ) “And they overcame him (meaning the enemy of our soul) by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” It is the love of God for each of us, which helps us to be truthful to ourselves, then we may begin to grow in every way. Every one of us needs to grieve those things that want to destroy us, lost loved ones, lost vocations, lost relationships, lost goals, the list goes on and on. Every grief journey is unique. Some losses are so great that it is not possible to get over the loss on your own, and with the help of God we learn to move forward. Journaling helps me immensely. Throughout our journeys, in reflection- it becomes evident to us that without the protection of the blood of Jesus, we surely would have perished in the making of our testimony, but Christ protected us by His blood, and it was only the plan of God and His love for us that allowed us to live to give a testimony. King David wrote Psalms 40-here are a few things that “overcoming” brings to each of us: “He pulls us out of a pit of despair, He allows us to stand with our feet firm on a rock (of Jesus), (makes us feel safe), He gives us a new song, a song of praise to Him, many will see our lives change, many will come to honor and trust the Lord ( others may run away from us), He has marvelous plans for us, His love and faithfulness makes us secure.” There are many more promises in the Psalms, those are a few.

If you have found yourself at a place where you are tired of surviving, tired of overcoming, fighting every step of the way, it’s time you asked Jesus to be Lord of your lives, your pains, your brokenness, your crushed hearts, let Him come and make your life all new, He gives us our testimony and His precious blood protects us, and keeps us safe through our testimony. Each and everything that has ever happened to us was meant to help others find their way to freedom through our testimony.

Can peace be heard?

Where there is a lot of clamor, people cry out “Let there be peace.” “Or I can’t hear myself think.” Peace can be heard.

Where there is stress, confusion, unrest, “People cry out- Let there be peace!” Peace may be experienced in our minds. We can hear it.

Where there is interference, calamity or war. People cry out. “Let us be free of disruption, painful events, or loss from fighting. “Peace can be a physical sensation.

Oxford dictionary describes peace as, “the state of being calm or quiet”. However, peace in the Bible is quite different. Peace can be more than just the absence of conflict, or a state of rest. “It also means completeness or wholeness, and it points to the presence of something else. Having Shalom” (Hebrew)(GWTFTS) This was sometimes translated into “Well being, may you be well.” Again, speaks of wholeness, health.

Jesus is our peace with God. (Romans 5:1)

Due to our sin we were enemies of God and were separated from Him. (Ephesians 2:13)

But Jesus restored our relationship when He took our sins and died our death on the cross. (Ephesians 2:14)

He provided a path for reconciliation with God, and now we are joined to God. (Romans 5:10). We also have fellowship with Him (1John 1:9) and with one another (Colossians 1:19-20).

He also gives us peace with ourselves, (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Jesus makes us whole and He is our peace, I believe peace is many more things than what has been discussed here. Through Jesus peace is always heard.

How can we sense being new when we are frozen ?

There are events that happen to all of us that may leave us in a state of immobility. Some may call it being “stuck, or frozen”. There are jobs for you to do, responsibilities staring you in the face, an unfinished book, a family- when we are in this place it’s very difficult to embark on any new plans or programs because the only thing stuck people are able to undertake are those things that you can do in your sleep they are so automatic to daily living. We sometimes feel like we are suffocating with stress to think of trying to fit any other “new thing” into our lives. As we begin to heal { timing is different for everyone} through this process we begin to see layers of pain peel off, ever so slowly. The pain is sometimes so hard to live with that some people turn to drugs or alcohol or various other addictions. This only buries the pain deeper inside of us , and causes a much longer recovery.

Now sudden losses, death in the family , sexual abuse, abuse, divorce, trauma of any kind can send us to a place of {frozen}. It has been referred to at times as dissociation- especially if the trauma has effected the victim very deeply, this is seen a lot with death of immediate close knit family members, Then we take the time that we need to grieve all pain, grieve all losses and daily process the letting go , sometimes this process goes on for months, sometimes years.

I am so thankful that I made the choice to allow Jesus to come into my life , to help me to let go of all unforgiveness, to allow Him to live deep inside of my heart. He helped me to heal of all the pain of abuse and brokenness and He made all things new. His strength is made stronger through our weaknesses, if we choose to come and give it all to Him.

Matthew 11:28-29 Says:” Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

Give the burdens to Jesus and He will make all things new!

Revelation 21:1-6,,,,,,,and He who sat upon the throne said to me:

“Behold I make all things new.”