This is a very noisy Christmas. Maybe it’s because I have quiet in my life right now, or maybe it’s because our world been confronted by a stream of tragedies in a short time. Christmas comes even when the world cries.
While we watch images of suffering and listen to the drone of rhetoric, our inboxes have filled with with ironic slogans like “Happy Thanksgetting” and calls to action for Black Friday deals on Sunday and Cyber Monday deals on Wednesday. Social media has been like a paint ball game, prompting me to keep my head down. It’s all made me tired. I’ve needed to be still and know God is God, and I’ve wanted to go to Him so He can give me rest.
I wonder if you’re hearing all the noise too. Not jingle bells or angels singing. All the added words and volume have made me crave what has been deleted. Quiet. Stillness. Peace. Emmanuel.
If this is the season of Silent Night, why do we settle for such loud living? If ’tis the season to be jolly, we might have to opt for a little “un-Christmas” to find our peace on earth. Advertised deals aren’t the deals I really want. Social media clamor isn’t the conversation I really want to be in. In comparison to Christmas around us, I think most of us want more unChristmas. UnChristmas takes the holiday handed to us on Facebook and TV, at the mall and in ideals we adopted from …. somewhere, and it replaces the expectations with something … real.
I would rather have an unChristmas.
Trading in a cheap imitation of Christmas starts with recognizing if we have an artificial one. Like the difference between an artificial or real Christmas tree, odor is a good place to start. What does your idea of Christmas smell like? Peaceful? Hectic? Worshipful? Hopeful? Crazy? Busy? Expensive? Stressful? Joyful? “It’s just so _________ this time of year.” The word we use is the Christmas we choose.
Nobody’s making you keep an artificial, noisy, chaotic Christmas. You can reject it right now and have “unChristmas” in its place. After all, the true record of the coming of Jesus is full of unexpected pieces. It’s nothing like the marketable, trendy, comfortable, or even beautiful holiday we pretend it to be. Everything about an authentic Christmas is “un.”
There’s too much noise this Christmas. I really don’t want to add to it. Because you probably need more quiet too, between now and Christmas I will share some short thoughts on how embracing the unexpected pieces of God’s true story helps us find the silent night, holy night we’re longing to know.
unChristmas starts here
- Would you do the courageous thing this Christmas and ask God to show you if there are artificial pieces taking up space in your seasonal celebration?
- Would you dare ask Him to open your eyes and show you how to trade in noisy days for a silent night?
- What word do you want to use to choose your Christmas?
I love the the thought of a peaceful unChristmas. This past weekend we had three wonderful Christmas events scheduled, which were great and I can’t imagine missing any of them because of the spiritual impact they offered. But being a part of them resulted in hours of preparation and lots of rushing. It’s hard to find a balance, isn’t it? I’m going to see if I can do a better job during the rest of December.
It IS hard to find a balance, and the world around us (sometimes even the Church world) doesn’t always help us. So many good things … but so many things, still. For me the difference often simply lies in my focus, and I know that’s meant to be a peaceful Christmas!