January 16, 2025
Some call it the “winter blues” but the more medically accurate term is “seasonal affective disorder” or SAD. For some of us, it creeps up each winter after the holidays. Perhaps it’s bitterly cold and it’s more difficult to get out and do the things we love to do. Perhaps the season leaves us feeling unproductive. Or perhaps we are lonely and the lack of interaction is beginning to weigh down our souls.
Psalm 25 could have been written by someone staring out of a window at a frigid, bare landscape:
Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
Relieve the troubles of my heart,
and bring me out of my distress.
Consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins. (Psalm 25:16-18)
The psalmist writes about how they feel utterly alone and overwhelmed by the weight of their anxiety. But notice that the writer falls back to relying on the forgiveness, the grace, and the love of God. They are not saying that sin in the origin of their loneliness; instead they are saying that, in the midst of their despair, the grace they experience from God can be a guiding light in the midst of darkness.
If you are somebody for whom this season can be difficult, my prayer for you is that you will also remember how deeply love you are by God and by your church family. If you are somebody who struggles during the winter, here are three suggestions (not solutions, just suggestions):
- Do not isolate yourself. Be willing to name the need for friendship and companionship. Call or text a friend and arrange a time to grab a warm cup of coffee or tea. If you need somewhere to begin, reach out to me and I would love to enjoy coffee/tea and conversation with you.
- Read the Psalms. One of the most beautiful things about the Book of Psalms is how raw and honest they are. Some psalms (like Psalm 25 above) are not afraid of the darker emotions of life. That tells me that God does not require us to have our act together before we can approach God; we come as our authentic, messy, doughy selves. Yet God loves us all the same.
- Move. There is some much ample research that says exercise contains a multitude of benefits including: “better memory, happier mood, decreased anxiety, and improved motor performance.” Do not just sit on your couch all day. Get up and make yourself move. Even if it’s just walking some laps around your living room, taking the dog on a walk around the block, or lifting hand weights, doing something with your body gets you out of your head and helps you to feel better.
As we continue to journey through the “bleak midwinter” do not forget that you are not alone and that you are loved!
Here is a portion of a prayer from Every Moment Holy, Volume III called “A Liturgy for Those Wearied by Winter”:
O God Who Did First Speak Light
into Deep Darkness,
illumine and warm again
our numbed hearts.
For we are increasingly wrung
by this tiring tide of night,
even as our hopes are wearied
by the long winter that attends it.
Let us assail this keep of winter,
with a sacrifice of conscious praise,
kindling joy inside its dark heart, that
we might find our own tired hearts stirred
again to holy flame, and our own wearing souls
roused to remembrance of – and trust in –
the long faithfulness of that same God
who first spoke light into darkness,
that same Spirit who even now
illumines our hearts and minds,
and that same Good Shepherd
who leads us through even long winter,
and into the budding fields and bright songs
of a world newly awakened.
Amen.