By Tyler McKenzie

Well it’s Christmas season, isn’t it? Look around—all the things that resemble sanity in your life got packed up on Black Friday and shipped to January 1st. Happy Holidays! There’s the shopping frenzy, the cross-country travel, the push at work for year-end bonuses, the kids home from school, and the reality show that is your extended family arriving on Christmas morning.

Welcome to December! There is the growing credit debt, the tractor beam pulling ye merry sports junkies to the recliner for a buffet of football, the dessert problems, the fudge problems, the pie problems, the cookie problems, the candy cane problems. And to top it off, your spouse invited people over you’re not even sure you like—never mind that it’s your mother-in-law.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Tis the season for emotional wrecks, family feuds, spending sprees, financial worries, gaining pounds, and nervous breakdowns. Think about it—if you came to America knowing nothing about this country and then lived here from the day after Thanksgiving through Christmas Day, what sort of impression would you receive?

Less Distinctive, Less Relevant

The picture above is obviously a comical exaggeration of Christmas in our culture. Nonetheless, sadly it sums up the Christmas spirit for most. Strangely, many Christians have fallen in line.

We’re supposed to be distinct. That’s what makes us relevant. That’s what proves we have something to offer. We’re called to sing a different song during Christmas, an Advent song about “good news that brings great joy.” Yet so few of us are.

We’ve been wooed by the melody of materialism, distracted by the tune of family commotion, or drowned out amid all the white noise of an American Christmas. And with each lyric and note sung, we become less distinctive and thus less relevant, blending right in.

Make a Joyful Noise

Let Psalm 95 be our call to a different noise this holiday. Let it be a summons to extol an exceptional God in a way that makes people wonder. In a world driven mad by the worship of everything but God, let’s make a joyful noise amid all the fracas.

There are few occasions better for singing than Christmas, so what song will your life sing this season?

Tyler McKenzie is the Teaching minister at Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and blogger at CrossShapedStuff.com. He lives in Louisville with his wife, Lindsay.