(Obviously, the following names are fake, but the people are real.)
Amy sits across from me on the bus. We're taking a field trip to the pumpkin patch and she tells me a joke with a cuss word in it. She says her dad told it to her.
Owen's mom tells me in line that she and her husband are getting a divorce, and it's been really hard because they work together. Owen's not taking it very well.
Maliah's dad comes to open house night with 2 other kids smaller than her and desperately tries to calm the baby while Mrs. Charlotte explains the new core standards. I see him frantically attempting to braid her wild hair at 8:40 in the morning. He wears his army fatigues and his big fingers can't really get a hold of that baby-fine hair on his precious daughter's head. Maliah is a firecracker, and spends a lot of time having to sit at her desk with her head down.
What a world full of hurt we live in.
What a world of opportunity for our family to demonstrate Christ's love sits just up the street.
We babysat for a mom and dad of one of Andy's classmates last month that HATE asking people for favors. I think they were blessed by how happy we were to do it.
Amy (same one from above) told me that Andy is her best friend. When I told Andy what she said, he told me about how some big kids had been making fun of her, and he had told her to pray. He told her that Jesus was always with her, and that He would change the big kids' hearts.
Maliah was mistakenly not packed a dessert last week, and it absolutely destroyed her. Andy gave her some of his, and she became his new best friend.
I am amazed by how easy God has made it to minister to people we hardly know. In an institution like public school, people who might never intentionally cross paths are forced to do so. So we get to be intentional about our interaction with them. None of these things are earth-shattering demonstrations of the massivity of God's love for the world; but each act is done with the intent of loving others so that they will know Jesus:
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." - John 13:35
Our hope is that these small acts of loving them will be tools in God's hands to draw them to the One Great Love.
Now, the question is: From an outside perspective, how are our acts different from any atheist's kind acts done purely to help someone out?
Well.....we also didn't celebrate Halloween today.
Now- WAIT WAIT WAIT! Don't X out of this blog never to return! Just hear me out....
We don't think that everyone who celebrates Halloween is a Satan worshipper. We see Halloween as Daniel saw the great feasts in Babylon....as opportunity to be holy.
"Holy"....meaning set apart.
"Holy"...meaning different.
When Daniel was faced with a choice of who to pray to, it was an easy one. Although "everyone else" was pretty swayed by the culture of Babylon, Daniel had separated himself from it a long time before. While all the other young men feasted on rich food from the king's finest chefs, Daniel ate veggies. He didn't do it for attention; in fact, he did it in secret. There was nothing wrong with eating all this wonderful food; it's just that Daniel knew he was there for something more. He didn't want his focus on his God stolen by the comforts of the culture. He had found a unique way to honor the Lord. And when decision time came, he was ready.
In the same way, not celebrating Halloween is a way our family has chosen to honor the God who sent His Son to die for us. Now, I know this is not a popular decision. After all, Andy's class had a full day party complete with poetry and song performances as well as lunch and a parade in honor of the holiday! Andy's spent weeks memorizing lines and places and hand motions for something he wasn't going to attend. And yes- I believe that he was the only one.
Could we have made an exception just for this year? Of course! Would God have been mad at us? No way!
But what if Daniel had eaten roast beef instead of carrots? Might he have been lulled just enough by the culture that surrounded him that he might think, "ah....no big deal...I'll bow down to this nit wit and then go home and pray in my closet"? Might he, without the tangible reminder that he was to be holy, have made a decision that would've closed the door to the opportunity for God to demonstrate His awesome power in the lion's den?
We think that today,when it was obvious who wasn't there for the big party, our small acts of kindness may have the opportunity to do something more. When I've got to answer for why we weren't at the biggest event of the year, I've got an open door to share what we believe and why we act as we do.
And Andy- he was reminded today that although we Christians have total freedom to participate in Halloween, we chose not to, as a special way to be holy - different - for our God who loves us.
And THAT, I think, will make all the difference.
