Advent Griefbursts and Traumatic Triggers – December 6, 2017

I’ve been thinking a lot about vulnerability this Advent season, thinking about how God was born among us – tiny and naked “in a stable rude.” He died naked, too, hanged on a cross.  And in between his birth and his death, Jesus was truly human and vulnerable — living his life, speaking his truth, and loving those he taught and healed and preached to openly and passionately.

And he wept.

In this season of many happy things there is also, for almost everyone, sadness.  Unmet expectations, disappointments, broken relationships, losses of all shapes and sizes.  Even the remembrance of past happiness can be a sadness.  And for some who have known, not just sadness, but trauma, this time of “comfort and joy,” can be very hard.

So we are called to take care of ourselves and extra-care of others.  We are called to make the choice to get enough sleep and eat healthy, to exercise and get outside each day and enjoy the sun when it’s shining.  We are called to choose “positive social interaction” and watch our own thoughts and self-talk.  When someone is unkind or harsh towards us we are called to take a breath and pause and realize we do not know what is in their mind or heart. And when someone’s eyes fill with tears, we are called to give them the time and the space to feel whatever it is they are feeling.

Carryll Houselander wrote in Wood of the Cradle, Wood of the Cross, “The way to begin healing the wounds of the world is to treasure the Infant Christ in us; to be not the castle but the cradle of Christ; and, in rocking that cradle to the rhythm of love, to swing the whole world back into the beat of the Music of Eternal Life.”

During Advent we prepare for both the cradle and the cross.  We prepare to embrace – and be embraced by – the whole Christ Event:  his incarnation and birth, his life and ministry, his suffering and death, his resurrection, and the outpouring of his spirit upon all of us.  It is that spirit of Christ, the spirit of love, that enables us and empowers us to endure our own grief and trauma and help others to do the same.