Category: Christianity

What To Do When You Can’t

What To Do When You Can’t

What do you do when the person you’re trying to help won’t listen? When the person won’t open their eyes to the truth? When you’ve tried every possible thing you can think of and you just. Can’t. Get through to them. When they’re making things worse on themselves and you can’t make them stop. When they’re refusing to do the things they need to just because it’s hard. When they seem to be doing everything in their power to hurt themselves and cause themselves more pain.

When it seems like it’s an uphill climb. When you feel like you’re not getting anywhere. When you feel like your stuck in one spot on the river fighting against the current and not making any progress. When you don’t have all the answers to all their questions. When you don’t have the foggiest idea what to say. When you feel such weight upon your shoulders to take care of them and you just can’t because you’re not capable of doing that right now. When you feel like you’ll be crushed under the pressure. When there’s such a burden upon your heart and you just. Can’t. Lift it on your own.

I don’t know. I don’t know what you do in these circumstances and situations. I don’t know. I hate that I don’t know. If I knew then maybe I’d be a better friend to those who need me. If I knew then maybe I wouldn’t get so frustrated. If I knew… But I don’t. I don’t know. I just. Don’t. Know. The best that I can tell you is to ask God for strength, ask Him to open the eyes of your friend, encourage your friend to read the scripture even if you have to remind them over. And over. And over. And over. And over. Remind them to pray, even if they don’t and even if you have to repeat it a billion times. Encourage them to talk to someone with more experience than you, even if you have to drag them to that person to get them help.

You can’t always do it on your own. You can’t even always do it with a whole group of friends. Maybe you can’t do it at all and God has to be the one to do the actual work, while you’re just the one opening the door or something. I don’t know. I don’t know everything, no matter how much I wish I did. But if you can do even a little bit to keep their heart beating, to keep them going, to just be there for them when no one else is, do it. No matter how hard it is. No matter how much it seems like you’re just going over the same three things over and over and over and over again. You have to keep going. Because you may be the only person they have. You may be the only person who’s willing to build them up when they and everyone else around them is trying to tear them down. They may need you. You may be their only defense against others and themselves.

And maybe what you think your purpose is in helping them and what God’s purpose for you helping them is are two different things and you won’t see that right away. You may not see it until even years later. But there is a purpose to it. I know that much.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” ~ Jeremiah 29:11

Why I Don’t Celebrate Halloween

Why I Don’t Celebrate Halloween

Let me start by warning you that I will be using arguments that I have heard and arguing against them in this post. If you stand by any of these arguments, I would like you to know that I do not mean to attack you personally, and I sincerely hope that I do not offend you in writing this. I do not mean to hurt anyone’s feelings, I merely wish to get my point across.

Now, without further ado, my blog post.

I sometimes get odd looks or questions when I tell people that I don’t celebrate Halloween. The most notable of these questions is this: Why not?

Well the basic answer to that is easy. I think that it is wrong. Halloween celebrates death and darkness, and as a Christian I see that as going against everything that the Bible teaches. God is light and life, so when we celebrate Halloween we are celebrating everything that He is not.

The first argument I hear in favor of Halloween from Christians is this:

But I don’t dress up as anything scary, so it’s okay.

Maybe you don’t dress up as a skeleton or a ghost or a vampire, but you’re still participating. You’re still celebrating with everyone else and you’re still glorifying the death and darkness that Halloween is all about. God tells us that we should “not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8:12) and that we should “take heed that the light within us is not darkness.” (Luke 11:35). He tells us “do not love the world or the things in the world.” (1 John 2:15a).

All this to say: It’s still Halloween. It’s still a celebration of everything God is not. It’s still bad.

 

The second argument I hear isn’t even really an argument.

It’s just a holiday. It’s harmless.

It’s just a holiday, yes, but it’s a holiday in favor of godlessness. It’s not harmless. You’re embedding an idea in your mind that darkness, death, etc. are all good things. In celebrating them you put them in a good light (pardon the irony.) The third dictionary definition for “celebrate” is to “honor or praise publicly.” This is what you’re doing when you celebrate Halloween. You are publicly honoring and praising death, darkness, and decay. Is that really what you want to be doing?

 

Again, I do not mean to attack anyone, I merely wish to point out what Halloween really is and why I think that it is wrong. You may agree or disagree, I don’t care, but please don’t make any nasty comments or anything (not that I expect you to.)