There are days when it is hard to name just how I feel.

Life can be so busy—caring for my family, showing up for work, dashing to pick up groceries, hoping to make it to the gym. I carve out a few moments for prayer before my head hits the pillow, only to find myself replaying a conversation in my mind, worrying about what tomorrow will bring, and chastising myself for not being more together.

Disconnected might be one way to describe how I feel.

Maybe you can relate?

I think many women can.

Our bodies can become sources of criticism, exhaustion, and shame. Our minds grow noisy with anxiety, distraction, and lies we begin to believe. Our emotions can feel so overwhelming we learn to numb them. Even our souls grow tired when we feel far from God.

None of this makes us failures. It simply makes us human.

And as humans, we are not meant to escape our existence or our experiences.

Rather, we are meant to embrace our humanity fully and wholly.

Jesus came to show us this.

He entered humanity through the Incarnation. He took on a human body, had a human mind, experienced human emotions, and possessed a human soul. He knew fatigue, friendship, grief, and joy.

The God Who created us also chose to become one of us.

Jesus Meets Us in Our Humanity

Jesus came to meet us in our humanity and make us fully alive. And this is the heart behind Blessed Is She’s Advent journal, Fully Alive, written by Megan Hjelmstad.

During a season that can so easily become more hurried and fragmented, Fully Alive creates a space for women to slow down, notice the places where they ache, and bring those places to Jesus.

This Advent, we will journey through four dimensions of our humanity: body, mind, emotions, and soul.

Not as another self-improvement project or a challenge to become perfectly peaceful by Christmas. But to make room for Christ to meet us right where we are.

Because our bodies are not problems to solve. Our thoughts do not have to run our lives. Our emotions do not have to be feared or obeyed. And our souls are never overlooked by God.

We are cherished and beloved in our humanity, in our embodiment as women.

An Advent Journey

Each week we will spend time in a beautiful rhythm as the Advent season unfolds:

• Sunday // Read the Gospel in light of the weekly theme
• Monday // Explore the theme and your need for healing
• Tuesday // Journal about your relationship with that area
• Wednesday // Reflect on struggles in that part of your humanity
• Thursday // Meditate on the Gospel with your senses
• Friday // Encounter stories of healing in that area
• Saturday // Practice ways to live more fully alive

Each day gives us another opportunity to slow down, notice, pray, and allow Jesus to meet us in the places we might otherwise rush past.

Blessed Is She has also created a kids’ journal, written by Olivia Spears, which includes similar content but at an elementary level, coloring pages, sacred art, and prayer prompts.

And we have bundled the Fully Alive journal together with a beautiful print for your prayer space as well as an Advent wreath to aid in personal or family prayer.

Arriving at Christmas Fully Alive

Come Christmas, we won’t have everything figured out.

Our bodies may still be tired. Our minds may still be distracted. Our emotions may still surprise us. We may still have places in our souls that need healing.

But that isn’t the point.

The point of Advent is not to arrive at Christmas having perfected ourselves.

It is to arrive ready to meet Jesus.

The God Who comes to us as a tiny Baby is the God Who knows our humanity from the inside out. He knows what it means to have a body that grows weary, a heart that grieves, a mind that seeks, and a soul that longs for the Father.

He comes not to shame us for being human, but to enter our humanity with us.

So this Advent, may we stop trying to run from ourselves. May we stop speaking to our bodies in ways we would never speak to a friend. May we refuse to let our thoughts take over the holy season ahead. May we make room for our emotions without allowing them to rule us. And may we remember, especially when God feels far away, that our souls are cherished by Him.

Jesus is coming.

He is coming into the beautiful mess of our humanity.

He is coming into our bodies, our minds, our emotions, and our souls.

He is coming to meet us exactly where we are.

To redeem us and make us fully alive.

Come, Lord Jesus!