A few days ago, I had a conversation that shocked me a bit. I was having lunch with a friend and former colleague, and we were talking about future kinds of things. I told her that the job I had been head-hunted had fallen through but then mentioned a couple of other positions that I’m applying for, one of which is at a large a well-known conservative university of my denomination. Her somewhat negative reaction to my interest in that position surprised me. I know that she does not share my faith, but I thought she knew enough about me to understand that, while I might not agree with all that comes out of the mouths of well-known highly conservative evangelical Christians, that I am, in fact, a pretty conservative and definitely evangelical Christian. After all, she’s known me for at least 18 years; she has actually attended an event or two at my church when invited; and I’ve never hidden what I believe.

The conversation moved on, though she seemed distracted, until she suddenly asked, “Are you a creationist?”

I was caught a little off-guard by that, but responded honestly. “It depends on what you mean by that. I certainly believe that God created everything.”

“But, recently?” she asked.

Now this threw me into murky waters. I don’t pretend to know when and how God created everything. The arguments that the days of creation have to be 24 hour periods seem a little specious when there wasn’t even a sun until Genesis 1:14. I also tend to think that we are always on dangerous ground when we find ourselves saying, “God had to.” If that’s grounded in his character and firmly Bible-based, it might be okay to say. Otherwise, it’s usually foolish. On the other hand, there is the whole “evening and morning” thing. My own person speculation is that God is a great storyteller who may created the universe just as the action was getting started (with Adam and Eve) but with a backstory (all of the evidence, but not spending the time). Of course, since God is outside time, maybe he created in such a way that some of those seven days were really, really long. The two things I am certain of are that God did it and that all of the scientific evidence does agree with that reality when fully and correctly understood.

There was no long pause in the conversation. I stumbled through a probably less coherent version of the above paragraph, and concluded by explaining that I do believe that the Bible is basically word-for-word true, that I certainly believe that people like Job and Jonah and Adam and Eve were real people and that the things the Bible says happened to them really did happen.

My friend looked at me a bit oddly and commented that maybe the university we had been discussing would be a place I would fit in.

So here is my quandary. Have I been that bad at sharing who I am and what I believe? Or has she been ignoring the evidence I have presented?

I don’t know.

I suspect, really, that it is some of both. She certainly knows that I claim to be a Christian, that I take Christianity serious,  that I attend church regularly, that I’m a missionary kid, that I reference God and Christ more comfortably than most. But I don’t know that I have ever been as clear about my beliefs to her as I should be. On the other side, there is a tendency in a university setting for people to assume that no one really believes that the Bible is true in its entirety. There are a surprising number of church-goers among the faculty who actually don’t believe that at all, many who don’t believe in fundamentals like Christ died to atone for our sin. So I would not be surprised if she had ignored some of the evidence about my beliefs simply because no professor at a state university could actually believe that, could they? She has just realized that at least one of them (and I do know several) actually can.

I guess the real question is what do I take from this moving forward. There was a sense in which my light was shining all along, but was I allowing it to be hidden in part by my circumstances? Do I need to speak more clearly of my faith in these relationship with non-believers or people I suspect are only nominally Christian? I think the only answer there can be yes: I need to be more intentional about sharing what I believe when opportunities arise.

I don’t know what will come of my recent conversation, but I pray that it is God’s way of opening a door to talk of spiritual things. Please pray with me for the courage and calm to speak very clearly in a way that this friend can accept if that door opens.

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect I Peter 3:15 (ESV)

Photo by David Monje on Unsplash

Many Christians like to show a picture of strength to themselves and the world. We point to verses like Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (ESV). We believe that we should be able to stand strong, and we often present a facade to the world and even our fellow church members that hides (or tries to hide) our weaknesses. Then we consider ourselves failures because we don’t live up to our pretense of strength and perfection. And when others see the weaknesses, they may be turned off by hypocrisy.

The sad thing is that we often get to this place with good intentions and a desire to follow God. So what goes wrong, and how do we avoid the traps?

As always, take my answers as one set of thoughts from my understanding the Bible. I would never pretend to have all of the anfswers for any of the topics I discuss.

I believe that one of our first mistakes may be that we tend to look at Philippians 4:13 out of context. Paul is talking about coping with circumstances. Look at the preceding verses: “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” Philippians 4:11-12 (ESV). Thus, the “all things” Paul mentions in verse 13 is doing what must be done and adhering to Christ in all of these different circumstances. We know that he hasn’t changed the subject because verse 13 continues to talk about the Philippians ministering to Paul in reduced circumstances, which is what had led him to this speech.

Am I arguing that we can’t do all things through Christ outside this context? No, but I think that we see the verse out of context and focus on the first half of it and lose sight of the second half. We were never intended to be able to do much of anything without Christ. And Christ, I believe, expects much of that strengthening to come through his body, the church. When we hide our weaknesses from our fellow Christians, we deprive ourselves of the opportunities for strength and growth that are the whole point of the church.

There’s another verse that I think we sometimes misuse to our detriment in this area. That would be I Corinthians 10:13: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (ESV). Too often we think that this verse means that we should be able to stand strong in the face of any temptation. As a result, we allow ourselves to stay in tempting situations, and then we berate ourselves for giving in to the temptation.

But Paul is not saying that we should be able to stand strong in the midst of a tempting situation here. In fact, his point is the exact opposite. He says that God will provide a way of escape. If we don’t take that escape, then we open ourselves to the temptation. The context of this verse is also important. Paul is speaking very specifically to the Corinthian Christians who believe that they are strong and above those who are weaker and have issues with eating meat that had been offered to idols. Paul is warning them that they need to be careful about getting too close to idolatry. It’s one thing to buy meat in the market and not worry about where it came from. He’s say that it’s a very different thing to go and eat in a pagan temple and believe that you won’t get drawn into the idolatrous activity there. Similarly, if alcohol is a strong temptation, a bar is bad place to hang out. If you have issues with lust, maybe you should avoid being around scantily clad people of the opposite sex when possible. Resisting the devil so that he will flee from you looks more like walking away from the offered temptation than it does becoming immersed in it.

One other comment about strength and I Corinthians 10:13. Some people lose sight of the topic in this verse (temptation) and will say that God won’t send us anything we can’t handle. I don’t believe that’s true. He won’t send us anything that he can’t handle, but sometimes he does allow sorrow and pain to come beyond what we can bear. I believe it is always his intention that we turn to him and rely on him completely because only he carry us through such circumstances. However, I think it’s much easier to turn to God in those circumstances if we don’t feel betrayed because of a misunderstanding. God will provide a way of escape for every temptation, but there are other things he may allow to come to us that will overwhelm us and leave us utterly dependent on him alone.

Photo by Cyril Saulnier on Unsplash

There’s a song I love by Scott Wesley Brown named “When Answers Aren’t Enough.” It makes the point that whatever we’re going through, Jesus is always there and he’s way more than just an answer. That has been a valuable reminder in the past few weeks as I’ve watched tragedies unfold.

Some of those tragedies you’re all aware of: the shooting in Las Vegas, the truck in New York and the recent church shooting in Texas. These events leave us stunned and asking once again those questions about why God allows people to perpetrate such violence, in some cases against his own. In the midst of all of this public tragedy, my family has been dealing with its own private pain. One of my relatives has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer: one of those situations where the doctors all say there’s nothing to be done but to try to ease suffering until the end. Given that she is in her sixties, that’s enough of a source of grief, but she will leave behind two grandchildren that she’s been caring for since their mother’s death a year and a half ago. That leads even more to that temptation to ask why? After all, no human will caused this suffering.

I trust in God’s complete plan that he knows why he has allowed these things to happen and how all of them will ultimately “work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28b (ESV). However, I don’t think that “why” is what we need today. I think we sometimes miss the comfort we are offered by getting caught up in the desire for understanding.

I believe there are two things that we truly need as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death that we are all walking through in these days. The first is to know and learn to recognize that God is here and he truly cares. The psalmist says “I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” Psalm 23:4b (ESV). He doesn’t say evil isn’t there: it is. But God is also there, providing guidance (the rod) and support (the staff). Many are familiar with the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept” John 11:35 (ESV). However, we forget to look at the context and recognize the point of the verse. Jesus has no personal reason to be sad here. Yes, one of his good friends, Lazarus, has died. However, Jesus knows what’s going to happen. He knows why Lazarus had to die. He weeps in shared grief with Mary and Martha and the others of the village. I don’t think we will ever fully understand why the self-sufficient God who created the universe allows himself to be moved, even grieved by our pain and suffering, but he does. And he knows when we need support rather than correction and direction or answers.

The other thing we need, equally important but definitely second in chronological terms, is perspective. I think for some situations that can be earthly perspective: the one that reminds you that you’re dealing with first-world problems. I have an email from my sister that I used to use for that one. She was living in a ger (or yurt) in a nomadic village in Mongolia, and this email describes the process of washing clothes in the winter in those circumstances. It was very effective in reminding me that many of my struggles are just not that bad.

Of course, when we face not the struggles of daily life, but rather life changing and life taking circumstances, the perspective we need is not earthly, but heavenly. In earthly terms, it really is that bad. This Monday, God used the Facebook Memories feature to remind me of that heavenly perspective. A post popped up from six years ago in which I had quoted 2 Corinthians 4:17-18: “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (ESV).

Those verses can be hard to read and hard to believe. What we’re going through doesn’t feel light and momentary. But it is. Our lives themselves are light and momentary from the perspective of eternity. And when we can learn to see the world around us from God’s perspective, at least a little bit, when we begin to recognize the unseen glory that awaits us, then we can find the strength to walk on in the pain of this life, leaning fully on the support God provides.

So Halloween was yesterday, raising the perennial question of what a Christian response to the holiday should be. My husband and I have struggled and discussed and found our personal peace, so I thought I’d just share my own thinking in relation to the dilemma.

It seems to me that there are aspects of the All Hallows Eve traditions that a Christ follower should steer well clear of. The Bible is pretty definite on subjects like witchcraft and divination and the exist of spirits that are inimical to human beings. Exodus 22:18 makes the point about magic use rather dramatically: “You shall not permit a sorceress to live” (ESV). Deuteronomy 18:10 reiterates: “There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer” (ESV). Some might say this is just the Old Testament, but note that Paul lists sorcery (witchcraft in some translations) among a list of “works of the flesh” in Galatians 5:19-21. The list ends with the warning that “those who do^[b] such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” Galatians 5:21b (ESV).

It seems to me that if God is serious about his people avoiding witchcraft and sorcery, we should take that seriously today. We should recognize the reality of the spirit world and the danger of trying to manipulate or foresee through use of that spirit world.

So where does that leave us. Halloween certainly has relationships historically (and, for some, today) with that spirit world. My personal belief is that we need to be very careful to avoid involvement with those relationships. Is it a sin to dress in a traditional witch costume? I don’t know; I personally don’t really think so, but I don’t know. I’m sure that trying to cast a spell is wrong. Is pretending to cast a spell wrong? I don’t know. I think it might have to do with what your audience may think. I am pretty certain that dressing in costumes that aren’t related to the occult and going to door to door asking for candy is not a sin. I’m also pretty certain that handing that candy out is not a sin.

But what about the accoutrements, the decorations, the gore in many cases, the deliberate frightening aspect of haunted houses and the like? I would offer that I become more and more convinced that these are things that Christians should be careful about involvement in. First, there’s the purpose of them. 2 Timothy 1:7 says that we were not given a spirit of fear. So what does it mean if we deliberately involve ourselves in activities meant to scare us or others? We’re told to set our minds on things above Colossians 3. In Philippians 4:8, we’re call to think about “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise” (ESV).

I’ve come to think that while much of Halloween and the activities associated with it may not actually be sinful, much of it does fall into either activities that aren’t profitable for our growth as Christians or activities that can fall into Paul’s discussion in Romans 14 about activities that can cause others to stumble even if your faith is strong and they won’t harm your own walk.

This is one of those things that I believe every Christian has to work through for him or herself, but my own household is going to keep handing out candy but stay pretty clear of the other elements associated with the holiday.