cling to what is good.

On Sunday, I took my 3 kids Trick or Treating. When I was little, there never seemed to be an issue about Christians trick or treating. I never felt like, when I was going out there, that I was worshipping Satan by doing so. However, in this day, the separation of church and state has gone to the other extreme and has pulled Christians out of the world all together. My wife and I wrestled with the idea for a couple of years of whether we should take the kids trick or treating. With our knowledge of the beginning of Halloween and the whole pagan tradition, we wanted to be sensitive to God's command to abhor what is evil. However, we also realized that Christmas traditions are steeped in almost as much pagan ritual as Halloween including the tree, the mistletoe and even the date. The church later took the pagan date of December 25 and decided to use it as a day to celebrate Christmas. We came to the conclusion that as much as we are not being "pagan" by putting pretty lights on a tree in our house, we are not being pagan by walking around the neighborhood in a silly costume asking for free candy. So last year was the first year for our trick or treating trek. The outcome was amazing. We actually saw more community people in one evening then we saw in the previous 5 years we lived in Rib Lake. The kids had fun seeing other kids in their costumes and I think, as whole, we actually built a samll bridge to our community, not to mention the load of candy we acquired. Overall, it was a positive expericence. My 5 yr old, Johnny, asked me the other day what Halloween meant. I carefully told him that the at the beginning of Halloween there was a lot of bad stuff and that by us trick or treating, we were not celebrating that bad stuff. We were going for 3 reasons. To dress up cool, to get candy, and to get to know the community and hopefully spread a little more of Jesus light in it. He seemed to accept that. In fact, when my mom told hm "Happy Halloween!" He said, "No. It's Happy Trick or Treating."
I think so many times we, as Christians, twist the command to be "in the world but not of it" to "live next to the world and hope that the world will wish for what you have." There is no way that we can share God's light unless we are willing to go out there where they are. As Jesus ministered to the woman at the community watering hole, it made me wonder why we shouldn't go to the local watering holes to be a light and offer living water to those who are scared and thirsty. Jesus himself was mistaken as a drunkard and a glutton becasue he was with the "sinners." It was the religious of the day that struggled with it. Nothing has changed much since then. The imperative, however is this...Jesus did it without sinning. That is something to always keep in mind. . As I was discussing this to a friend, he said, "Where do you draw the line? Do you go to a strip club to minister?" I said, I couldn't because I would proabably sin. Jesus was also led by the Spirit, not an agenda of His own. In order to go, I have to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading. That might be to enter a place or to also leave a place when the Spirit tells me too. I have not yet braved this endeavor yet. But I think it's worth the time to talk about it as Christians and to encourage us to have such a passion for lost souls that we would be available to be led into the dark places of this world to find them.