Christmas – hopes and fears
One line from the popular Christmas hymn, O Little Town of Bethlehem, is relevant to us every day of our life, not just at Christmas. “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee, tonight,” was written to express both the spiritual excitement and the world’s anxieties, relating to the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
Many people hope for a miracle when they find themselves facing a situation that overwhelms or threatens them, or those whom they love. When people find they have a fatal or potentially fatal illness, they often go through a bargaining stage, praying or hoping for a miracle recovery. Yet most often they find out miracles are not a common occurrence, at least not in the form that they are seeking.
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If their hope is one of giving up and expecting someone or something else to take over, they seldom make much progress. But miracles can occur if their hope involves giving in to the situation and doing the best they can to deal with it. These real miracles usually involve discovering a new aspect of their relationship with themselves, those they love, or with God.
Talk to fears
Fears are a strange topic for an event like the birth of the Messiah. And the fears of the world are not more than all our individual fears put into one. Fears are like shadows or ghosts. They are often hard to pin down. And, ironically, the more specific you are in dealing with a fear, the less power it has over you.
One therapist used to ask his clients to give their fears a name, despite how silly or embarrassing the fear may be. One man used to wake up in the middle of the night, in terror, and unable to get back to sleep. Once he gave his fear a name, which in this case was “Mr. Spook,” he was able to talk to the fear. And the more he talked to the fear, the more the fear weakened and eventually disappeared.
To deal with a fear you must meet it head-on. You don’t have to fight it, you just need to acknowledge it. And the best way of handling it is to ignore it.
How do you ignore something that is terrifying you? That’s where the message of Christmas comes in.The group AA has an expression about what to do: Let go. Let God.
The spiritual force, which Christians refer to as the risen Christ, is with us, around us and within us. Hope is the key that can open the door to experience that presence. We can let go of our fears, knowing we are accepted, loved and cared for by the creative spiritual energy within our universe which is commonly addressed as God or Father.
