As a boy I loved Halloween! It took me a long time to get out of the practice of knocking on doors, yelling "Trick or Treat", and filling up my pillow case with the goods from my willing neighbors. My costumes were more and more lame the older I got, but the smell of fall in the air, the hopes of giant candy bars at the next house, and the competition of beating my sisters in quantity of bounty was too strong of a pull for me to give up even into my early teens!

Once I started following God I was disappointed to hear that God didn't want me, or my children in the future, to play any part in Halloween. If I were a good Christian and wanted to be pleasing to God, I was told I would turn my porch light off, head over to church for the "Harvest Festival", and do all that I could to convince my unsuspecting neighbors to boycott the overtly demonic celebration called Halloween.

Well, I wanted (and still do desperately) to be both pleasing to God and honoring to Him in every way! So I did turn my light out, head to the harvest festival, and ask my neighbors to come with me for a period of time. But to be honest, there was always a part of me that wanted to dress up in a lame costume, grab my pillow case, and knock on the doors of all my neighbors who went out of there way to buy delicious delectables for me! However, I was willing to suffer for Jesus if that was the right thing to do.

Then one day in the fall I read an article about why I should abstain from Halloween and something spoke up inside of me, "Is it really wrong?" So I began to take a closer look at the modern day practice of the holiday, at the arguments for abstinence, and reconsider my conviction.

Before we go any further you probably know where this is going. If we disagree on this issue that is okay with me and I hope it is okay with you. In other words, I hope we can still be friends. I respect your position and trust you to live it out in grace towards others.

Now back to my story. First, the modern day practice of Halloween. I wondered if there was evil intent in a child's heart when they dressed up like a princess or a perhaps even a ghost made from an old white sheet? Are parents really practicing the ancient Celtic rituals or supporting them in any way (do they even know them) when they go from house to house collecting Baby Ruths from Mrs. Ruth's house? I concluded no. Roughly 99.9% of anyone I have ever met or heard of participates in Halloween for fun, not for religion. So I concluded that much like Christmas with trees and Easter with eggs, the American celebration of the holiday has little to nothing to do with the demons, the dead, or spirituality.

Second, I thought that maybe I should still abstain even though others were clueless. After all, even though they aren't tuned in, God and the spiritual world certainly are. Right? Agreed! I am not saying that popular opinion is the deciding factor for any decision. However, my thought process went something like this. Does God care? Does He care if I celebrate in my neighborhood or at my church? And I decided yes. He does care! He cares about my neighbors and my interaction with them. He does care about how they view me and how they view Him. When thinking this way I began to ask this question, "When do my neighbors within a mile radius come to my house willingly, spend a few seconds to a few minutes interacting with me, and allow me to come to their door and ask them for free gifts other than on Halloween? The answer is never! So then does it make more sense for God's people to be available and interactive during this unique time of the year or to have all the people of grace hold up in a building doing the same activities that are going on in the neighbors, but without neighbors and friends? It is for you to decide, but it seems to me that God would rather have me with my porch light on or behind my kid dressed as Spiderman or Bob The Builder on my neighbors porch.

These, and other considerations, have lead Christie and I to do a few things at Halloween. First, buy the best candy we can afford! I want our house to be memorable and a topic of discussion at "the great counting of the candy" later on that night in homes across the neighborhood. Second, we give out lots of candy - handfuls! We do this to spread lots of joy and because that is how we want our children to receive candy when they go out. Third, we let our kids dress up and hit the streets with one of us at their heels. We say hi to neighbors and chat as long as we can. We figure by just being out and about we are more available to make friends and be useful. Fourth, we tell people who ask us (cause they do) that God does not hate them for letting their kids dress up and walk the hood.

Again, you need to come to your own conviction and wherever you fall on the issue thanks for reading and have a great night!

Joe