Halloween, a nightmare on your street?

On the main SU site there is a really good piece about how to talk to children about Halloween, you can read the whole article here. However, I thought it might be interesting to get a few thoughts from anyone reading this this blog. In particular I wanted to point out this paragraph...

Modern times
Churches and individual Christians will differ in their assessment. Some will see Halloween as a harmless bit of fun quite detached from its pagan origins (but we need to note that Samhain is still a key festival for modern Pagans); others will see it as direct involvement with the occult. In between is a whole range of views. If you are discussing this with your children be clear on your own point of view first, and then be clear about the position taken by your own church, which may be different.

What do you think? How do you use the Bible and prayer to find your own point of view? What part does personal experience play?

I tend to place myself toward the 'harmless fun' end of the spectrum, because God is all powerful and Christ has the victory. However, I haven't had to help anyone who has been involved in the occult and now wants nothing to do with it.

So, what do you think?

Darren

Calm in the chaos or chaos in the calm

It's all a matter of perspective.

Of course saying that is easier than living it out. The fact that my bath currently has a leak is a real pain, causing misery to the whole family - you try telling a 16 year old boy he can't have a shower.

But then the pain I'm going through is nothing like someone who is facing a terminal illness. Or to take things further, to those who don't even have running water.

However, these things do cause us anguish.

When things get a little too much I often take a moment to reflect on Mark 4:35-40, where Jesus calms the storm. Both Jesus and the disciples are in the same position, they are both being battered by the chaos that is the storm. Jesus though, remains calm and... well you go and read it.

One of the activities in WordLive suggests the following:

Bring to God the bad news in your life right now – the things that just don’t
make sense, that seem chaotic. The hurts, family rows, disappointments, the
betrayals and setbacks, the broken hearts, broken dreams… here

We may be in the midst of chaos, but we can focus on the calm. How do you stay calm in the middle of a storm, or if you don't, vent a little here in the comments.

An eye for an eye, and the whole world goes blind

There's a video on this week's WordLive talking about whether it is right to treat people badly if they've wronged us.

What role does justice, and our sense of personal justice - take a look at the news most days and you'll see people claiming that justice has been done through the retribution of the courts, play in all this? Should we forgive and forget? Is incarceration an outmoded form of revenge?



So what do you think? Why not leave a thought in the comments or make a video response on youtube, we'd love to see what you think.

Darren