We celebrate Halloween here at the Long house. I know that among Christians, of which I am one, this can be a very tricky (Haha! Tricky!) subject. I'm sure I have very dear friends who disagree with me about this, and that's ok. We can still be friends as far as I'm concerned. But let me just tell you where we're at on the Halloween debate. I have not studied the history of Halloween. But I agree that it may have been started by very evil people who had very evil intentions. But I also believe that it has now morphed into a perfectly harmless holiday, for most people. (The people who do strange, harmful things on Halloween are doing strange, harmful things all year.) The seven year old who shows up knocking at my door dressed as Cinderella, probably does not have plans later in the evening to sacrifice her precious cat Fluffy on a burning fire of Bibles, as an offering to Satan. And if I refuse to open the door for her, she is most likely going to think, "Geez, what a party pooper." She is not going to think, "Oh my goodness. They must not celebrate Halloween. I bet it's because they love Jesus. They're right! I should love Jesus, too!"
As a follower of Jesus, I want to be known for what I am for, not known for what I'm against.
Do you know what I'm for? I'm for fostering a feeling of community in my neighborhood. I'm for having one night a year where it's perfectly acceptable to knock on your neighbors door and beg for candy. I'm for celebrating creative costumes. I'm for being there when my neighbors come knocking at my door with their adorable kids. I'm for having the GOOD candy. I'm for attempting to be "that house who gives the amazing fill-in-the-blank. (We haven't discovered that yet. We're trying.) I'm for having one last hurrah as a neighborhood before we all shut ourselves in our houses for the cold winter. I'm for taking a holiday that may have been meant for evil, and making it the most fun, community driven activity we've done all year.
There may still be time. Go get some candy.
love this post.
ReplyDeletebuilding community by loving kids and giving great candy.
sweet (pun-intended) thoughts!!
Awesome. I'm so glad you put this into black and white. I've tried to quote you all day, and it's so much better to have it written down. I paraphrased your theory on one blog today and said that I liked your philosophy because it was motivated by the question, "How can I use this day to show love?" Excellent.
ReplyDeleteI don't take my kids trick or treating, because we usually have a church party, but I totally agree with your reasoning here. At church yesterday, Justin said, "All Satan can do is counterfeit things. God loves to celebrate harvest, so Satan wanted to turn it into something else, because he can't stand harvest."
ReplyDeleteI love that you want to be know for what you are *for*, and I can get behind wanting to be good at loving kids. Way to harvest.
I personally would like to know what Dan posted that you had to remove... twice! ;)
ReplyDeleteWe went trick or treating so long, in prime time, that we didn't hand out hardly any candy! Next year our plan is to split up, and on top of that trick or treat for a shorter time. It was hard to resist Nola when she said, "I LOOOOVE trick-or-treating!" Another lesson learned...kids want to go to the houses that LOOK cool. Nola and her neighbor friend always wanted to go to the houses with lots of decorations and lights. Mental note taken.
ReplyDeleteOH! And I have no idea what Dan wrote. :) And no idea how to delete the deletions!
ReplyDeleteYour night sounds terribly similar to mine. I was so in awe of my selfless little Jake who's been saying for weeks that he wanted to trick-or-treat AND pass out candy because it's nice to give something when you get stuff. He enjoyed it too and kept saying, "Just three more trick-or-treaters, then we'll go." But after they'd been out for a while and returned to the house, he knocked on our front door (I opened it), held up his bag and said, "I don't want this much. I want more."
ReplyDelete