New Blog: The darkness of life serves as terrific back-drop for Christmas.

I was clicking through some television channels the other day and I happened to land on Dr. Oz. And although I might have been the only male watching his show (99% of his audience is made up of women), I was lured to the bottom of my television screen in which Dr. Oz had listed a number of statistics that pertained to mental health. For example, Dr. Oz shared that the Holiday season produces "twice" the bouts of depression than any other time of the season. In addition, he shared that the average wait to see a doctor or a psychologist is typically "three" times longer than any period of the year. He pointed out, strangely enough, that Halloween tends to be a more favorable period for people emotionally. Go figure.

Of course, my mind started to ponder why the holidays, especially Christmas, produce the greatest bouts of anxiety in our lives. It could be broken relationships among family members. It could be financial strains. It could be the pressure of trying to demonstrate to those around us that everything in our lives is merry, when indeed, it's not. As a Pastor, I can also add that during the Christmas season, I have more appointments with those who are struggling, big time, with emotional and chemical imbalances.

But here's the game changer: I believe that Christmas is the perfect antidote to exposing this darkness and giving real answers to our despair. I think we really miss the big picture if we try to make Christmas something that it's not. Christmas is not about trying to make people feel good or to help them forget their past. Instead, Christmas is like a kiosk, pointing out our deep sense of dependence upon God, along with our lack of strength and power for our lives. Christmas exposes the depth of the darkness, and calls a spade a spade. This is why the angels called it, "Good News." Think about it. Whenever you get some good news, there had to be a prior condition that wasn't so great. I think that the church in general unintentionally ignores the darkness to some degree, and forgets that the backdrop of Christmas is all about emotional and spiritual despair. That's what makes the Christmas story so BRIGHT. What an amazing contrast. That's good news. It's a game changer.

Funny what you can learn from Dr. Oz.