Playing With Fire

Yesterday, my heart lay in many pieces, wondering how to handle this conundrum I have now found myself in: living in the “Western World”. Before I came to such ‘enlightenment’, I knew nothing about Halloween. In fact, the idea of it would have been somewhat preposterous, to say the least. Coming from the continent of Africa and a country like Nigeria where evil never smiles at you, we were always very careful to dissociate ourselves from anything even remotely close to the idea of evil. So when the decorations for Halloween began to surface earlier in the week in homes around mine and even at my daughter’s nursery, my head began to spin, literally.

Skeletons, witches, monsters and graveyards. When did any of these become something worth celebrating?

“It’s just an innocent event, it doesn’t really mean anything”, some have tried to explain to me and I shake my head wondering when anything in this world really meant nothing. Even ‘nothing’ has a meaning.

“You’re taking your Christianity too far, it’s just dress-up and nothing more”, some have tried to ridicule me and I shake my head wondering when Christianity had a point where it could not reach. Isn’t it the basis of my life?

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. Ephesians 5:11

We call ourselves children of light and find ourselves dabbling with everything that is darkness and we sense nothing amiss? Think about this for a second: The reoccurring theme of the celebration is FEAR.

For God has not given us the spirit of fear . . . 2 Timothy 1:7

If God in His infinite wisdom decided to keep fear far from us, why then do we choose to dabble in it? These questions prick my heart over and over again as I look around me and see how the world tries to make normal what shouldn’t be, and we accept it without question.

Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Proverbs 6:27

So is it really okay to CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN as a CHRISTIAN? What is the celebration for? What does the day mark? Of what use is the day in itself? When we dress up in honour of the day, is our dressing up in any way glorifying the God of light as we dress up in the name of darkness?

As long as to a Christian, Easter will never be about celebrating the Easter Bunny and Christmas will most certainly not be about celebrating Santa Claus, then we must in the light of God’s truth be careful what else we choose to celebrate in the name of inclusion.

The true witches are not smiling. When they gather, they gather to fight against the kingdom of light as they spread darkness around. There is a real battle in the realms our human eyes cannot see. So why do we lower our guard and welcome their plans and assist them in spreading the darkness when we should be shining God’s light?

These questions prick my heart over and over again as I look around me and see how the world tries to make normal what shouldn’t be, and we accept it without question.

So ask yourself, are you a for light or for darkness? And don’t lie to yourself that Halloween isn’t darkness . . . look around you, it’s symbols will tell you the truth.

 

 

 

Feature Photo by Matt Howard