Thursday, October 31, 2013

"Thursday, October Halloween, 2013"

We have a large pocket folder/hanger thingy/calendar hanging in our kitchen.  Each day the kids take turns putting the number of the day's date in the pockets on the hanger and then say the date.  It's a good way for them to practice knowing how to read and use a calendar.  For today's date, instead of a "31" the calendar simply says "Halloween."  This morning, Ferg said, "Today is Thursday, October Halloween, 2013."  Close enough, I guess.

This year it seems as though there have been an inordinate number of online articles published by various authors and organizations that address how Christians should approach Halloween.  To costume, or not to costume?  To trick or treat, or not to trick or treat?  These are the questions that preoccupy the hearts of Christians at this time of year.

Some people appeal to the pagan roots of Halloween - which to be sure, are there - as a reason to not celebrate.  Others point to how Halloween has become somewhat of a low-brow holiday, as it seems the goal is to see how gory, disgusting, or risque we can get without crossing a line (or maybe intentionally crossing several lines).  Still others balk at how closely related Halloween is to death, witches, ghosts, etc., and don't want to be a part of it.  These are definitely good reasons to abstain.

Those Christians who do celebrate the holiday, however, usually justify their participation by arguing that Halloween is a cultural holiday, and amounts to nothing more than dressing up the young'ns in cute costumes and shuffling them off from house to house, and then sneaking some candy out of their bags after they go to bed.  This is mostly where I fall, for several reasons that I won't go into here.

Interestingly, opinions on whether or not to celebrate Halloween vary even amongst the members of our church.  There are some who partake, and some who abstain.  Who's right?  They all are.

I don't want to oversimplify the question, but to me it seems that there is an easier response to the question of whether or not Christians should celebrate Halloween.  As I see it, in order to answer this question, one should read the Bible, pray, and then do whatever one wants.  Abstain or partake, either one - as long as you are informed by scripture and are walking in the Spirit.  Based on this approach, whatever you decide will be right and good.  The minute we start making our opinion a standard by which we judge others, however, we have erred.  I don't think that one can hold up his or her beliefs on the celebration of Halloween as a standard of righteousness for all others.  The Bible doesn't speak clearly on this issue, and we should allow for differences.

So go trick or treating tonight with the little ones.  Or don't.  Whatever you decide will be what is best.  But in whatever you do, take some biblical wisdom along with you.  The first thing that comes to mind when I think about this participating in Halloween, specifically when it comes to costumes, celebrations, etc., is Philippians 4.8: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  

Monday, October 28, 2013

An Update, and Some Facebook Withdrawal

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll have noticed by now that I haven't posted to it in, oh, about four months.  But since there aren't any regular readers of this blog (including me), you likely haven't noticed, and have just stumbled back here coincidentally.


Why no posting for such an extended period of time.  Most of the reason can be summed up in this word: summer.  Another word that describes the absence is: work.  In truth, there are several reasons why I haven't posted for a while, even though I had good intentions to do so for some time.  Oh well.  What's that they say about good intentions?

But a recent development in my life is affording me the opportunity to post more.  What's that development?  As of yesterday, I'm done with Facebook.  Done.  If you look at the right side of this site, you'll notice that the Facebook widget is not emblazoned with an image in my likeness, but instead merely reads "Facebook."  That's because I've deactivated my account.

Why did I do away with Facebook?  Quite a few reasons, actually, most of which are related.  Here are a few:

1. It had become apparent to me that I spent a lot of time on Facebook.  I never really posted much, but I ended up spending a significant amount of time reading the posts of others.  Over the past few months, I have felt more and more like reading posts from people I neither had regular contact with, nor would have contact with in the future, wasn't an efficient and valuable use of my time.

2. I was more convinced of this after reading this convicting article by Tim Challies that Facebook wasn't likely to be in my future much longer.  I tend to think that when I write my own "Things I Don't Regret Doing With My Kids" post, it won't include a bullet point talking about how much I don't regret spending time on Facebook.

3. I'm sick of overshares.  Let's face it, there are far too many people who share far too much information about themselves on Facebook.  It's stuff I don't need to know.  I know that I could just block them in my newsfeed, but if I do that, then what's the point?  I didn't see one.

4. The forth reason is like the third, and is potentially the most significant reason.  Facebook was affecting the way I relate to people in face to face contact, in what I think was a negative way.  The more I learn about people on Facebook, the less I feel the need to relate to them personally.  Additionally, the more "dirt" I get on people via Facebook, either intentionally or unintentionally, the more that influences the way I relate to them personally.  This has not been a positive trend in my life and ministry.  So it was time to cut it out.

The withdrawal symptoms have been more significant than I was expecting.  A couple times today I caught myself, seemingly subconsciously, moving my fingers to type into my browser.  I resisted though, convincing myself that it was simply force of habit.

So as to not completely remove myself from the social media world, I've opened a Twitter account for myself.  I have no intention to tweet, or twit, or whatever it is.  I merely want to stay in touch with the media organizations I frequent in order to get continual updates to content - mostly theological.  I'm not saying I'll never go back to Facebook, but I plan to take a long break.

So here's to more blogging and no Facebook.  I guess I'll see where it takes me.