The Light is On…

Yesterday was Halloween.  It is not a holiday I have generally been enthusiastic about.  When I was a high school student (ancient history for my kids) I heard a former Wiccan priest then converted Christ follower talk about the implication of Halloween to those in the Wiccan religion.  I remember it sounding like something straight out of hell itself.  Not wanting to even remotely associate with anything evil I decided then and there not to participate in Halloween things anymore.

Yes, I was the mother who didn’t let my children get dressed up in a costume and traipse around the neighborhood asking for treats.  Instead, we were in the basement of our home, but always with the lights on our front porch off.  It was neither friendly nor neighborly.  In our attempt to keep ourselves from even the hint of evil we alienated ourselves from the people who most needed the gospel, our neighbors.  I knew people who refused to give candy out but would grudgingly buy gospel tracts to hand out instead.  No wonder the people around me considered Christians spoil sports.  I thought I was being righteous but really all I was being was selfish and stuck up.  There was nothing righteous about what I did.

My attitude toward Halloween started to change when my daughter, Kirsten, who had never been trick or treating in her life decided to give it a whirl with a couple friends when she was in college.  I chuckled at the stories she shared about the experience.  It didn’t sound evil at all.  And what she did sounded like clean fun rather than evil.  My mind began to shift.  Maybe I’d been a little too cautious with Paul’s admonition to “abstain from every form of evil.” (1 Thes. 5:22)

Before we moved to State College, PA in the fall of 2016 I began to be convicted that I needed to “be Jesus” to those with whom I came in contact.  I bought lunch for the movers that packed our house in Eau Claire, WI and then sent my husband to get sandwiches and drinks for the movers who moved everything into our new home near Bellefonte, PA.  I tried to respond hospitably to people I was coming into contact with, often for the very first time.

Then in April 2017 our pastor did a series of messages on the Art of Neighboring.  He continued the neighboring theme over the summer with a series he entitled More Than I See.  Convicting and life changing sermons, to be sure.  I became more aware of my call to be a “front yard missionary” and being perhaps the only gospel my neighbors might ever read.  I did not want to be the stodgy, old Christian woman who kept Jesus to myself.

And so when our friends Tim and Nancy Suloff told us they would not come to life group on October 31^st because they wanted to be present in their neighborhood to welcome children to their door, I moved past any misgivings still noodling around in my head and decided to be present in my neighborhood as well.  What happened?  When I turned my light on my entire neighborhood came to me.  I truly enjoyed seeing the children graciously receiving their treats, some being coached by thoughtful parents using the event as a teaching moment to encourage thankfulness but many offering big smiles with their polite “Thank you’s” all on their own.  I couldn’t stop smiling all evening.  Not only did I turn my light on, I let my son Jadon go trick or treating with some of his friends.  He came home with a big bag of candy, including a very large treat bag filled to the brim with all sorts of wonderful goodies AND a gospel tract.  It warmed my heart to know that there were others besides me, with their lights on and their hearts full of the love of Jesus, being Christ to their neighbors.

So next Halloween guess who’s going to have her light on?