Spirits and Saints

 Halloween is my least favorite holiday. Sorry kids, small and big. I am not opposed to costumes (I was a theatre major); nor candy (have you seen my shape?). I loved saying “Trick or Treat for UNICEF” when I was a boy.

 What bothers me is that we celebrate only half of what Halloween represents. Halloween started to keep the spirits away on October 31. People dressed up in disguises to avoid detection by roaming spirits.  Churches held “All Hallows Eve” services to ward away the spirits until the dawn of All Hallows (Saints) Day on Nov. 1, which was the celebration of the saints in heaven. 

 Along the way we lost the superstitions but still celebrate only the darkness. We stopped remembering the light on All Saints Day, November 1, a day set aside to remember all those who truly did die in Christ and now live and reign with him. (Cue “For All the Saints”, and if you don’t know it, find it on YouTube!)

 Yes, call me Halloween Scrooge. I wish all of you ghosts and goblins a safe and happy Trick or Treat, but, please, on Tuesday, remember a saint you love who lives in light.

Tick Tock...Tik Tok

 Luke 18:8 “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

 I believe the church exists to tell the next generation that Jesus alive.  Then I read the Gallup world-wide survey of teens which reveals that while 47% of all teens believe Jesus was crucified, only 33% believe Jesus rose again. Among Christian teens, only 50% say that Jesus is resurrected. Read that again.

 Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. Now is the time to get our Message to the next generation. Why do we have difficulty engaging teens in conversations which explore the basic, faith-defining, Christian truths? How do we share the faith today?

 Learn to live like Jesus is alive. If Jesus isn’t alive, then Christianity is dead.

 Check out Christian Tik Tok influencers, young Christians expressing their faith in ways that I never could imagine. Teens learn faith in something every day.

 If Christianity has a future, then the Church needs to learn how to communicate truths to teens in methods that reach their eyes and ears.

 Parents, grandparents, churches, are we truly committed to doing what we can to make sure Jesus finds faith on the earth when he comes looking?

"Essential Prayers"

 When the circumstances of life change faster than we can comprehend.

 When the world in which we live seems to be falling apart at the seams.

 When you cannot think of one word to say to a God whose existence, perhaps, you wonder about.

 Then, when words escape you, here are two prayers you can memorize and draw upon to lift to God:

 “Help me, help me, help me.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

She has a third prayer for those rare times when everything goes just right, maybe even better than you dared hope. Memorize this one too:

 “Wow!”

 God is listening. Every day. Pray.

 Sources: Anne Lamott (2012). “Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers” Penguin; Anne Lamott (2000). “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith”, p. 75, Anchor