It’s pretty common for the high street to put out the message that The Twelve Days of Christmas are the days (shopping days of course) leading up to Christmas. In fact, traditionally, the First Day of Christmas is Christmas Day itself, the first day of a twelve-day feast celebrating the birth of Christ.

I daresay that many of you are worn out with shopping, card writing, snow-shovelling and the rest, and looking forward to a bit of a sit-down. Although you may also be working up to the arrival of hordes of relatives, and worrying about the tricky family politics that make Christmas a little less than Merry. It’s a myth, I believe, that the suicide rate rises at Christmas, but I’ve been told that the decision to begin divorce proceedings often begins on holidays or on Boxing Day. It’s when you stop the routines of life and have time to look life in the eye that you realise where things have drifted. If you are a church leader, the drift might be a double whammy – you’re probably as weary as hell by now with Advent Services, trying to carve out some space to write your Christmas sermon, and hoping that nothing will fall off the trolley until those precious days after Christmas give you a chance to catch up on your sleep.

Chris Erdman is a man who knows what it’s like to face up to life’s pressures before they get the better of you. His ebook, downloadable for free, is a beautiful telling of the story of how he was a startlingly able Church Leader who suddenly realised he was cut adrift from his soul, and how he found the way back to being a saint and a pastor, and not just an omnicompetent Church manager. It reads not just as his story, but like an invitation into a spiritual journey of your own. Also on his website he will be offering spiritual meditations on each of the Twelve Days of Christmas, starting on Christmas Day. If your soul is a little parched, give yourself a treat and head over there.