history

Eyes And Mind More Open To The Surprising, Wonderful Gift Of Remembrance Day / Memorial Day?

/ Lori Lawe / Leave a comment
white table and chairs on green grass field during daytime

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada, also known as Veterans Day in the USA, and previously referred to as Memorial Day for a similar, earlier holiday.

The best thing about these days (all variations on the same theme) is that they force us to think about . . . wait for it . . . our own individual deaths.

(Sorry for saying it out loud. But good news follows! Keep reading!)

We are the Dead. Short days ago. We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, loved and were loved, and now we lie, in Flanders fields.

Canada’s famous Remembrance Day poem, In Flanders Fields by John McCrae

This thought is the one we close our eyes to and try to forget with movies, popcorn, and laughs with friends, and other healthy distractions.

This thought is one of the ones that bolts us awake at night just before we fall asleep with, “Oh yeah! I’m going to die!”

And then we frantically check our email and update our social media profiles to further distance ourselves from this thought.

“Oh! And what time is it?” Time to run off somewhere else and distract ourselves some more! But what if we sat with some tea and really had a good look at this irritating thing called “Death”?

For example:

  1. We are all rolling the dice every day, wondering if today is the day we meet our maker. Let’s add a little statistical reasoning to our end-of-life dice roll. Why not? What can it hurt? Try it HERE.
  2. Alternatively, we can wait until we are eighty-nine and a half years old to give the thought that “I will die someday” a little ponder, but I’m not sure that’s the best approach.
  3. A wise person thinks a lot about death. Why not swallow the fear and give end-of-life a little think-through, friend?

Oh! And I almost forgot to say that there is joy after the fear!

You’re welcome!

Good luck!

Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.

Jesus Christ – The Guy Almost 1/3 Of The People On Earth Claim To Follow1

Photo Credit – Me, Too, One Day? Right! I Almost Forgot! by Selena Morar on Unsplash

Thank you for liking me! I like you too! Let’s journey together!

1 The guy might we worth listening to sometimes!

Simple Mistakes That Make You Celebrate Halloween Like A Loser!

/ Lori Lawe / Leave a comment
group of men in black and yellow crew neck t-shirts sitting on green grass field
Photo by Joppe Spaa on Unsplash

I was in Dollarama minding my business when a stranger opened her heart to me.

I was as surprised then as you are now, reading this. We were standing near the Halloween decorations, and as she vented, more of her heart came out. “I’m just not sure I agree with these gross decorations and letting my kids dress up as such violent characters.”

Perhaps it was because my homeschooled kids had commented as they walked by the Halloween decor along the lines that the costuming was icky.

I’m unsure if that made this stranger feel I could be her confidante. It seemed she was processing her thoughts aloud as she let them out. But this wasn’t the first time this had happened.

Maybe it’s the fact that more people are accidentally getting themselves in trouble stepping into actual demonic realms, or maybe it’s because skull and demon fashion decor trends are dipping, but we clearly have modern Halloween bystanders who seem uncertain about the whole thing, especially the more disgusting the decor becomes.

But we’re not talking about that today.

We’re talking about how not to look like a loser on Halloween!

To me, Halloween feels like the desire to hang out with the cool kids, but thinking that the cool kids are a bit gross. There’s this cultural desire, or maybe the pull of candy and the fun of dressing up, because I want to play, too! But really? Why are there cut-off body parts right there?

Anyway, let’s talk about how to avoid celebrating Halloween like a loser.

To do that we will need to learn some history.

The eve of All Saints Day, or All Hollows Day (shortened to Halloween) was a day initially designed to celebrate God’s victory and even to mock the devil’s defeat.

“Let’s get free of God!” . . . Heaven-throned God breaks out laughing. At first he’s amused at their presumption. . .

The Message

We’re saying to the devil that, “Hey! You’re on the losing team because Jesus has defeated you on the cross!” But when we honor and try to lift the satanic, like those 10-foot demon statues sometimes put on lawns, were saying “I’m voting for the losing team!”

And that’s how we celebrate Halloween like a loser.

So how do we celebrate Halloween like a winner?

Again, let’s turn to history.

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther set the world on fire by birthing a reformation within the Catholic church (He did this by nailing his “Theses” to a church door -The modern precursor to email).

On October 31, nearly 400 years later, the Welsh Revival was birthed, and 80,000 people decided to follow Christ in less than four months (That was more than simply a good marketing campaign!) This move of God then spread around the world.

October 31 is a day of great victory for God!

So let’s dress up, enjoy hot chocolate and friendship, and celebrate like a winner. Jesus won the ultimate victory, although that victory hasn’t seen its full fruition yet and won’t until He comes back again. But we know where the final victory lies!

So we can celebrate October 31 like winners.

And so, stick with me if you want to be cool at Halloween!

O.K., you might not be cool, but at least you won’t celebrate with the losing team!

And that’s one step toward fitting in with our culture, being cool so people will like us, and making sure we’re doing the same things as everyone else regardless of whether or not our gut instincts wonder if we’re celebrating with the right team! (See first paragraph).

You’re welcome!

Good luck!