Backwards Halloween

What were two clowns 

and Darth Vader 

doing this morning?

 

Backwards Halloween

I am not a big fan of Halloween.  So when we were invited to participate in something that would use the halloween day as a vehicle for sharing God's love we were down with it.

The idea was to reverse the "halloween trick-or-treat" idea into a time of giving and loving instead.

      We dressed up, bought some candy and went down the street to Tent City: an area where the homeless take up shelter in their tents.

      It was a beautiful sunny morning so many people were out walking around or sitting on the road.   The kids loaded up their hands with candy and boldly went from person to person greeting them and handing them sweets.

      The smiles we received were precious!  A couple people were overcome with gratefulness, especially seeing young children being a part of it.  Most of them were amused and just enjoyed the candy.  A few too drunk or stoned to really care.  There were only two children that we saw, dirty, snotty little ragamuffins.  They were a little scared of the costumes but lit up like light bulbs when they were given candy!

      It would be easy to judge the people there because many of them choose to be there because of handouts, free food from a nearby ministry, or their choice of lifestyle. 

      Growing up downtown I saw many things.  I experienced people who said they were in need but when food was given to them instead of money they rejected it.  They only wanted support for their alchohol or drug addiction.  Yet at the same time my heart would grieve for them with compassion.  Not because of their lifestyle but because of their need for a Savior.  They were trapped in a place of lonliness, hopelessness, sadness, sin and shame.

      The dirt and trash, the smell, the language, the  incoherent stupor that many are in does not bother me.  All that is on the outside of the body.  But what is in the heart is the important part.  They want to be wanted just like all of us.  They want to be loved just like all of us.  They want to be free and find satisfaction just like all of us.  But they are lost, just like we all are, or have been.  They all need Jesus Christ, just like us all.

      Often I am too judgemental or impatient to really see people as God does.  I have prayed many times that God would increase my love and compassion for people.  When we pray this God is faithful to open the eyes of our hearts and to give us a love like His.  To lay down our lives...our rights, our comfort, our preconceived ideas, our selfishness...in exchange for a joy that is beyond compare.