Merry Christmas

Imagine, you’re trapped… in a hole, a pit, a dungeon. It’s dark, cold, and you’re hungry. So hungry.
 
Your captor keeps you off guard at all times, as you don’t know what is next. You’re sick with dread, or are so exhausted by the dread that you’ve moved to apathy. But you can definitely feel the cortisol coursing through you, the everyday stress and worry. Your tormentor heckles you relentlessly. Whispering that you’re worthless. Making you question everything you are or want to be. Working to convince you that you are not only not enough, but that you are worse, a complete mistake. Or that you’re not a mistake (which is true, so you let down your guard just a little and want to believe), but that people hate you for being different, and that there are conspirators who want to take everything that matters to you… your money, your family, your job, your dignity. Your jailer keeps confusing you, stoking your fears, until you  are not even sure what you believe anymore. You begin contradicting yourself from day to day, just trying to make sense of this captivity.
 
And then you hear it. Someone coming to rescue you. Someone calling out, “You are special. You are safe, now. You are beloved.” You know that if you raise your voice, if you call out, you could be heard. Saved. But your tormentor threatens you, if you call out, and your savior doesn’t come, you’ll be worse off than before. He is in your head, now, repeating the mantra that you are a fool.
 
But contrary to the lies of your captor, your rescuer keeps coming. “Just call to me,” your hero shouts out. “I came for YOU. I love YOU. And I AM stronger than what holds you back.”
 
You can be skeptical. He can handle that. You can be confused. He can handle that. You can be angry. He can handle that. You can have called Him friend at one point and then turned your back on Him. He can handle that, too. But know that He searches for you. He came for you. And no stress or daily burden, no voices in your head, no shame when you look in the mirror, no societal ill, no political torment, and no prison can keep you under its oppression, when your rescuer has already arrived. Just tell Him where you are.
 
That’s what “Merry Christmas,” means.
 
Merry Christmas, Everyone! You are so loved.

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