I had a conversation today with a Christian co-worker.

We were on a job where there were many, many cubicles. I had walked around the corner of one cubicle and surprised one of my Christian co-workers. To this, he said something to the effect, “Woh, I didn’t even see you there. So, I thought I’d be a little funny and say, “I’m mysterious.” All the while I was thinking about how God moves in mysterious ways. Here’s somewhat how the conversation preceded from there.

To this, he said (paraphrase) “No! That’s not good! That’s witchcraft!”
I said, “Nah, man. . . I’m mystical dude!” He said, “No, no, no. That’s not good. That’s witchcraft!”

So then I did what every spiritual Christian should… I played to his ego and stubbornness.

Me: “Wow, really? Witchcraft, eh?”
Him: “Yes. Believe me, I know a lot about it. I’ve been in this for a long time.”
Me (being facetious): “What? You’ve been in witchcraft for a long time?”
Him (very serious tone): “No! Not that! I’ve been a Christian for a long time.” (now with his confident voice) “I’ve been saved for 20 years.”
Me: “Wow, 20 years, huh?”
Him: “Yes. I know a lot about this stuff.”

At this point, I wanted to stroke his ego by saying, “Wow, you must be proud about that, eh?” But then I realized that would not be as effective as telling him he’s selfish and don’t know half of what he’s talking about. I thought about a throat chop, but that wouldn’t be loving either.

So, I ended up remaining silent and letting him soak in his “years” of Christian spiritual blah.

Normally, I would engage the person in a conversation about what being mysterious really is, and about how we often attribute God’s work to being mysterious, not in a bad sense. But, I was so fed up with his subborness I couldn’t handle any more conversation. If I would have talked more to him, I would have preached at him in front of others. Maybe I should have. I had to fight back the urge to call him out on his theology all day. So, in order to fight this, I just asked him about himself. And I listened. And I asked more. And he talked. And he never asked about me. And he talked. And I listened.

He didn’t seem to mind.

—Jonathan
Photo by William A. Franklin

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Are you hesitant on participating?

Well, I could understand if you are. I have talked to quite a few people who believes that Halloween is of the devil and Christians are participating in the occult if they participate in Halloween. Then there are those who do not necessarily think so. What ever position you take, I would like to say a bit about it all. Just a bit, though.

What power does it hold?

If halloween is the participation of pagan worship, then it must hold some intrinsic power, right? I recently had a good conversation with a new friend who believed in the power of words. He used the Bible verse,

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits” (Prov. 18:21).

He, along with many others, take this to mean that the very words you speak have cosmic power in them, and can either create or destroy. The problem in this, I shared with him, is that words in and of themselves have no power. It’s how you use the words that determine the effects they have on others. And even at that, sometimes how you use them holds no bearing on others. Why would I say this?

Because words have no intrinsic power.

In other words, they don’t have anything in and of themselves to do anything. The value of words is in what the person gives them, and also how people respond to them. For instance, I can tear someone down by calling them terrible names. This is destructive. Or, I can build them up with my words. This is life-giving. However, if I choose to use destructive words toward someone, this doesn’t necessarily mean it will have a negative effect on them. They may be very confident and assured in who they are in Christ. This is much like the problem Paul was facing when he talked about eating meat sacrificed to false gods. There’s nothing wrong with the meat—it’s good because God created it. It was the USE of the meat that was bad.

I also shared about Paul’s life. God chose Paul to be His instrument, but he was to be an instrument of suffering. What should we tell Paul, that if he would just speak positive words into existence that he wouldn’t need to suffer?

Ehh. Wrong. This was God’s plan. God had a purpose and that purpose was to use Saul (Paul) to reach others through suffering. Actually, ALL Christians are called to some sort of suffering. Take that prosperity gospel, which is no gospel at all!

Now, what about Halloween?

In the same way, Halloween holds no intrinsic power. It cannot create or destroy in and of itself. Only how people use it and how others respond can Halloween really be evil. Then, it is the use of Halloween that becomes evil. Yes, I know it originated from a pagan holiday that the Roman Catholic church decided to be counteractive to. But, this does not mean that participating in it in some way you are sinning. I don’t encourage Christians to dress as witches and warlocks and devils or demons (although I think skeletons can be pretty cool). Just don’t shut your doors and hide away from the world during Halloween night like some sissy Christian. If you don’t want to participate in the holiday, that is totally fine. Just find some creative way to engage with the world and be the Gospel to it—even if that means participating in a local church function.

One last thing.

Don’t condemn. If your brother or sister in Christ is participating in Halloween and you think they should not, don’t condemn, but if you like find the appropriate time and talk about it. Same way with you other Christians who ARE participating and you have friends that don’t. Don’t condemn them either, but have a God-honoring conversation at the APPROPRIATE time.

All in love friends, all in love!

—Jonathan
Photo by minipixel

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