Reformation Day

Can I be honest? I hate Halloween. I think it is one of the most useless and over-hyped up holidays. It doesn’t honor or represent anything noble or edifying. My mother loved it as she was into “spiritual” things including psychic insights and Ouija boards.

I do not have all things unseen figured out, but I do know this - that our triune God created all things and He does not want us to dabble in dark spirits or the “occult”. The Holy Spirit guards us against such things and I have no desire to open my soul to them.

When our fifth child was born, we lived out in the country. We had done the Halloween thing up til then, and drove our costumed kids to the town neighborhoods. At that time, we realized the spiritual significance of the day. It was both easier and felt better to process our awareness and let the observance go. We made peace with the older kids about it by hitting the store on 11/1 so they could pick out their own 1/2 price bag of candy.

Today, I am focused on Martin Luther’s earth-shattering bravery in publishing his 95 Theses in 1517 - which split Christianity into the Catholics and the Protestants. May we all speak the truth as boldly as he did and with love!