I have been very candid about my struggles with anxiety and depression. So candid in fact, that I fear I make some uncomfortable with my discourse. Those struggles have taken me away from my writing these last three years. My hope in sharing now, however, is that maybe one person would hear it and be forever changed for the better before the damage is too much or too permanent to overcome.

Please understand, I don’t see myself as someone who gets it right. I wake up most mornings just as I have since my pre-teen years. My mind is racing and full of all the things that I see myself failing at that day. Some days the sadness is so deep and the fear is so powerful, that it takes all I can do to move. I told someone recently, that I don’t get to upset about what others say towards me because what I have said to myself is so hurtful and dark that the words of others pale in comparison. Many is the day I have wished to just go home to my Savior. But I press on because of the love of a beautiful wife and a daughter who needs to see a father grow old.

This is where my faith gets real. This is why I cry when I read the Christmas narrative. My God sent His only Son to become man. My God became just like me so He could experience everything I experience. He willingly jumped into the skin I so want to jump out of on a daily basis. And He did it so that I had a chance to be free of my pain one day. He became “me” so I could become like “Him.”

God is good. His creation is perfect. The sin of a fallen world and our own reaction to that fallen world has created so much pain in our lives. The birth of the Christ child was very real. His love for you is even more real. I challenge you to take time to breathe as this year ends. Breathe in with the same confidence that the Savior of the world breathed with on that starry night many years ago.

Be at peace, my brothers and sisters.