4 Ways to Handle the Holidays as a Christian (with or without mental illness)

Welcome to the Holidays of 2020

The stress of the holidays is still here, especially with COVID-19. We’re still pressured to spend money on gifts (online), or gather with family we may or may not get along with (virtually or limited in-person).

Just the idea of the holidays, with the loss of loved ones over the past year from sickness, tragedies, or simply the circle of life, is tough. We don’t feel like it’s anything close to the norm we’ve known in years past. But as Christians, we are called to give thanks in all circumstances, no matter what they look like.

So here we are, in 2020, facing a world that appears unnatural, being tried and tested, tempted and challenged to bear with these obstacles and new worldly expectations (limitations of numbers in gathering in person, uncertainties in the world of politics, unrest in neighborhoods and in the public square…).

It has come to this, unfortunately. However, as Christians, we are called and set apart and distinctly expected to “live worthy of the calling” (Ephesians 4:1) we have in God, with or without mental illness.

On top of the worldly stressors, our personal lives have the constant wearing of symptoms, perhaps. Is it still possible to live as a Christian with a mental illness and expect to “live worthy” of such a calling? God commands it, therefore He’s going to make it possible.

When we’re willing to submit to His way, He will make it happen. Don’t doubt it for a second!

Get with the Father.

During Jesus’s ministry on earth, he didn’t preach or perform miracles on anyone else’s timeline but the Father’s. I have a feeling he didn’t just delay his appearance and delivery of any of his miracles because he was in the habit of being late. Rather, if I look to the rest of his nature in the gospels, he is never late but on time. He spends the time in communion with the Father.

The first way we can handle the hectic stress of the holidays like Jesus is to get with our heavenly Father first. See what is in store in that quiet time when we are still before him.

For a practical approach to spending time with God, follow these general rules of thumb:

1. Ask God to come close to you. And ask Him to speak to you through His word, the Bible.
2. Search the scriptures. Let His words resonate with your heart. Speak them aloud to yourself. Seek His voice in what you’re reading in the Bible. Keep asking Him, “What do you want to say to me through this passage?” Need a place to start? The gospel of the book of John is one place. Psalms is another. Or get into a topical Bible study.
3. Meditate and soak in what you heard. Dwell on those words – toss them around in your mind – ask how you can conform to what the principle lesson is from that passage. If you notice a contradicting notion to your lifestyle, ask God to reveal His truth and what may be sin in your life. Confess and agree with Him that you’ve sinned and need to turn to change your ways. Ask for His help.

Join where the Father is working.

Look for places where God is working. Jesus says in John 5:19 “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

Do you sense a need to serve in your church or community to fill a need that your heart resonates with?

Do you have the heart desire to be used of God to meet the needs of those who are “less than”?

If you don’t see it with your two eyes, where do you know there is a need in your sphere of influence that you can help ease a burden?

For practical examples of joining with God in His work, look to:

1. Your community shelter and food pantry to volunteer or give provisions
2. Your local churches – your own church’s outreach events – get plugged into serving
3. Your family and friends. Don’t forget God called his followers to minister to their own families’ needs first. Who is the family member who has seemed down or not 100% lately? Ask God for an opportunity to make time to spend with them in quality conversation to hear them out and provide for their needs.

Love.

What a loaded verb! A noun, to be sure, but only once its fulfilled in action. I cannot receive love if I have not known the act of love. It’s an action, first. What is love but to care in emotion and express that in action outwardly?

For practical ideas to love aside from the ones above, try:

1. Offering to pray with someone you encounter – maybe they are looking sick, tired, weary.
2. Encourage another with truth in a caring way – share one of God’s promises with them in a meaningful way – maybe by speaking to them a verse, or maybe making a card for them with a verse inside.
3. Think of their needs as more important than yours. Give until it hurts. Guard your heart from getting too enmeshed emotionally, but do not stop being kind and tender-hearted toward them.
4. Others and yourself. Let yourself off the hook, too. As much as you have forgiven them, don’t forget to forgive you, if that is something you struggle with.

Worship in Spirit and in Truth

It’s like the launching and catapulting of your faith. When you worship, you extend your spirit and reach out to touch God’s. This is the peak of the call of a Christian – to lift our eyes unto the hills and shout praise and lift our hands and sing!

It can be inhibiting to get comfortable and stay in the same space for days, weeks and months. When we get back to worshipping in Spirit and in the Truth of who God says He is and who He says we are and how we are to relate to Him – it comes full circle.

For practical ways to worship in Spirit and in Truth, consider:

1. Pausing during the day and whispering, “Thank you, Lord, praise you, Lord!”
2. Standing and raising your hands in victory to the Lord, for what He has brought you through, and where He is with you now and what He is going to do
3. Singing worship songs – along with the radio…But have you tried improvising and making up your own?
4. Bowing your head in humble prayer and adoration. Just one of many ways you can show reverence and honor to King Jesus today.

Did I mention these are things anyone can do – whether you struggle with a mental health diagnosis or not? Stress and anxiety and depression can affect anyone these days, especially in times like these. But our God has never changed, and never will change the way He works through His children and loves the world.

My challenge to you is this: try them and see what kind of difference it makes in your day and those around you, today.

Happy Thanksgiving and God bless!