DECEMBER STATE OF MIND

Have you ever felt like you’re forgetting something? Despite having a well maintained and highly organized calendar filled with logistics carried out with military precision lol, have you ever had a moment (especially in December) where you felt that gnawing sense that you forgot to respond to a text or email? Forgot to be somewhere? Forgot to take your kid to an activity? Or perhaps even forgot your kid at an activity? 

This mental state of “wait what am I forgetting?” — sure, it could be that your brain isn’t getting any younger but I also think it’s a by product of a culture and society that is overwhelmed by the hurry scurry rush of life — which is ever spinning, coming at us from all directions and on some days, this nonstop life happens with the subtlety of a toddler flipping a Monopoly board!

Add to that frenzy: the holidays, doom scrolling, reading about heartbreaking world events, multiple fires you’re putting out, friends’ recent cancer diagnosis and your hair stylist’s unexpected health scare, helping your elderly parents, managing multiple properties, remembering to give cheerfully and with an overflowing heart of gratitude to multiple causes you sincerely believe in, keeping your marriage passion ardently ablaze, checking in on your child’s heart (the one you forgot at the aforementioned activity!) mentally planning this week’s dinner menu and hurry, quick add the list to Instacart, while simultaneously making mental notes of what you’re baking for the upcoming 23 parties you’ll be attending and while we’re on the topic of not forgetting, be sure to jot down a reminder to buy the ultimate, unique gift you’re on the hunt for, to bring to the white elephant gift exchange that’s coming up….BUT back to the present,(see what I did there?) you’re leaning over your kitchen island trying to rack your brain on that something you forgot. 

Grrrr! What was it?! 

While we’re trying to remember, let’s just pause for a moment.

Seriously, let’s just breathe for a minute K? Because now would be the perfect time to take a deep, deep inhale and exhale. (Don’t feel silly that you actually did it!) 

Your body and soul needed that moment of calming and healing the parasympathetic nervous system. 

In all of the mental acrobatics we perform whether it’s December or any other month, it’s so life giving and needful to anchor our hearts in Who matters most – JESUS!

He’s not some mystical, religious figure that we can just chalk up to being noteworthy, during certain times of the year. He is LIFE – and He desires to engage with us right where we’re at – everyday! Jesus is the only One who fulfills the core of our restless hearts, heals our brokenness, calms our minds with His beyond logic peace, centers and grounds us, holds us together, binds up our wounds, counsels us with divine wisdom, brings clarity and peace to confusion, orders our steps, teaches us when to let go (Isaiah 43:18-19) and when to hold fast (Hebrews 10:23) – without HIM there’s just no life (John 6:53). 

Taking the time to sit at His feet even if it’s for five or ten minutes, will do wonders for our hearts.

 Our soul is refreshed, our heart is healed and our mind is renewed. In Hebrew, the primary word for “renew” is חָדַשׁ (chadash), meaning to make new, restore, repair, or rebuild. Isn’t that what we desire? To be restored, repaired, rebuilt and made new? Jesus came to do just that, when He arrived as a babe on that starry night in Bethlehem (on a side note kinda wish Mary had an iphone so we could see His baby pictures!).

His birth, death, resurrection and ascension – reconciled us to the Father and gave us access to abundant, eternal life in Him – not just to experience it one day in Heaven, but to abundantly flourish in His life in this earthly, temporal realm of errands, task lists, car lines, 1500 text threads, the peaks and valleys of relationships or even in those mundane moments of staring into the fridge wondering what to make for dinner AGAIN!!! He’s in it all and He longs for my heart and yours. He loves to whisper of His deep, personal love and kindness. He made me and you and knows us more than we know ourselves! He speaks of His truth and mercy. He leads us as a Good, wise Shepherd. He comforts and heals us. His joy empowers us!

Only in Christ will we find the true meaning of life and what gives it purpose, peace, grace and truth. He causes songs in the midnight hour, hushes storms to be still, creates beauty from ashes and raises dead bones to life. 

He is the source and the essence. 

He is the joy and the experience.

He is the fruit and the vineyard. 

He is the water and the well. 

John 4:14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

Philippians 3:13-14: “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal.”

1 Peter 5:7: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you”

Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”. 

Our hearts were made for more. 

Today, in this moment, whether we’re trying to remember or forget, He is the One we get to live, move and have our BE-ing, in. (Acts 17:28) In this temporal world of distractions, noise, demands and broken, lost and hurting people we find wholeness, truth, peace, joy, strength, redemption, forgiveness and so much more in the One whose birth we celebrate.

He hasn’t forgotten you or me.

“…I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands.” (Isaiah 49:16)

May we never forget Jesus.