Midweek: Pure, Authentic, Uncompromising

I have a confession: Halloween was my favorite holiday; and if I'm being fully transparent, it probably still is. The difference is, I don't celebrate it anymore. The difference is, I view it with extreme caution, eyes wide open, knowing what it is and knowing I cannot go back no matter how much I am tempted. Attached to Halloween are over forty years of fond memories, and the perfect chill that comes over our part of the country, the heralding of the holiday season, the colors... For me, it is the perfect storm. A storm in which I can become lost at sea if I compromise my principles to enter it.

This is not a rant about the evils of a pagan holiday or the "innocent" way in which portals to the demonic are opened right within our homes, however true those things may be. What I am personally apt to do is blur the lines. Or maybe I speak of human nature in general. Listen to the words of God through the prophet Jeremiah:

And the Chaldeans who fight against this city shall come and set fire to this city and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke Me to anger; ~ Jeremiah 32:29 

He's talking about Jerusalem here; the people of Judah, God's people, who offered incense (worship) to pagan gods on the roofs of their homes! How? How did God's chosen people go that far astray? Well, lest we think ourselves so far above all this... Halloween. Again, I'm not looking to hate on Halloweeners or to be legalistic about all of this, but am I personally okay with carving a pumpkin or two, entering our son in the Halloween parade, hanging some bats in the tree out front? A "Christian" Halloween event with which I used to be associated had costume guidelines: No witches, no demons, no dead. It was simply a dress-up day. So why on the 31st of October? We often justify our "alternatives" with the argument that it is so difficult for our children to be excluded from the "fun" of Halloween or the "fun" of believing in Santa Claus. Why is "fun" or being perceived as "normal" by the world so important to us?

When the children of the world are having a "good time" getting pregnant at age twelve or boosting cars at thirteen, when the seven-year-old next door is playing Call of Duty for six hours on a Sunday morning, are we finding similar-yet-just-different-enough options so they don't feel ostracized? I hope we are telling them Absolutely not; this is dangerous, this is unhealthy, this is not what God intended for you. And what about us, Moms? Do our yoga pants have Namaste printed down the leg? Does our popcorn have a Buddha on the bag? What about you, Dads? Do you have a few beers or swear just a bit --you know, the "milder" ones --when you're watching the game with the guys on Sunday? What about our playlists? What sort of music are we allowing into our homes and our hearts? Only the "cleaned up" versions? Don't kid yourselves. 

I'm guilty. I have found all sorts of ways to compromise, to fit in culturally though I am called to stand out. It's not so difficult for me to understand how the people hand-picked by God could have strayed to the point of worshipping pagan gods on their rooftops. What if it had all begun with trying to appear relevant? with wanting to be "normal"? finding a similar-yet-just-different-enough alternative so they weren't so excluded? Or maybe it wasn't a conscious decision at all, and that could be the problem. Maybe it was a complacency toward all the little ways the world's ways creep into our ways and we accept it as "just the way things are."

Our Lord and Savior died and rose again, releasing us from the bondage of this world, to walk in newness of life. It is our uniqueness of devotion, of purpose, of love for one another, of lifestyle that points others to the One who procured these things for us. It is God's intent that we do not (or should not) look like the world: that is the hook, so to speak. The world can find its own reflection everywhere it turns. Does it find the pure, authentic reflection of Christ alone in you?