The Great Pumpkin Speaks

The Great Pumpkin Proposes A Toast

(The following toast was taped at the 4,231st Halloween Dance and Potluck, held this year in the basement of the Salem, Masachusetts City Hall. The guest toastmaster was The Great Pumpkin, well-known advocate of Halloween among children. Those in attendance included a variety of witches, ghosts, fairies, gremlins, mummies, headless horsemen, bats, vampires, werewolves, monsters, members of the Adam's family, the Munsters and, of course, thousands of things that go bump in the night.

"Ladies and gentlemen, ghouls and goblins, monsters and monstrosities both real and imaginary: It's truly an honor for me to be with you this evening on what is always a wonderful time of rekindling old friendships and wishing one another well before our big night. Many of us never see our fellow members of the realm of imagination except at this gathering, and it's really wonderful to see all of you again. I especially want to thank this year's President of the Halloween Society, Harry Potter, for all the work he's done this year. What a year, Harry! (Applause.)"

"It would be remiss of me to say much this evening without paying grateful respects to my creator, Charles Shulz, who gave me the opportunity to live as long as people read his work, which I will believe will be many years to come. Sparky- you did good." (applause)

"I know that each of you takes your part in Halloween very seriously, and I want you to, but I hope you won't forget to take a moment and smile at yourselves. You know, we bring a lot of joy into the world, and I want all of you to take a moment and feel good about that. Just turn to the ghoul or monster next to you and say "you're a special person who makes people happy." (Noise)  I want you to remember that, and I want you to see one another as important in this world, because it's easy to forget just what we are all about."

"The world of the imagination has always been essential to human beings, but they've never known just what to do with it. Sometimes they want to live there entirely, and others times they avoid it completely. They reward those who create it in books and music, and yet they fear these artists of the imagination as well, even doing them great harm. Throughout history, the imagination has been denounced as well as celebrated. Each one of us knows about those times when we were welcome to bring happiness, and also about those times when we were blamed for all kinds of evil that we did not create, in fact, could not create because of what we are."

"This ambiguity is part of human nature, and we ourselves embody part of the struggle. Is the world a place that truly IS as it appears, or is there more to the universe than what eyes see and ears hear on any particular day? Do good and evil really exist, or are they simply words that mean nothing? Do human being really understand themselves, or are there mysteries within them that defy explanation?"

"On our best days, we all realize that we are simply the imaginary embodiment of that struggle to know and comprehend, and our part is to play the unseen, the unknown, that which is not understood. We allow the human imagination to play with the reality that escapes science and math and college courses and glib experts. We are the night, the darkness and the fear. We do not exist, but human imagination needs us desperately to try and take ahold of the incomprehensible."

"Particularly painful for many of us are the escalating attacks of religious people on the realm of the imagination. We have suffered from those who see the imagination as a gateway of evil, rather than a canvas on which human nature itself paints the picture. We have been blamed for violence and even death, things we would not even know were it not for human beings investing us with those actions in their own minds. It is as if some religious people actually believe that we exist- that we are real and were somehow a threat to them."

"When I see someone explaining the evil influence of a pumpkin, it's both a cause for laughter and for sadness. How can anyone, particularly one who says they believe in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, believe that mummies and werewolves and ghosts and witches hold any spiritual or actual power? One of the best imaginative writers, C.S. Lewis, who created all of the Narnia characters, was convinced that God gave human beings the realm of the imagination to be a sort of classroom to teach them, in a childish form, the spiritual nature of the universe and reality itself. In allowing them to create the imaginative realm, they were learning to reflect on reality and see its true character, and to see their own character as well. It was a way to see that human beings are the imaginative creations of God himself, and they reflect both his nature and their own fallen, rebellious nature."

"I believe it was Frank Paretti who recently said that from his childhood fascination with monsters and ghouls he learned to live with his own physical deformity and the isolation and rejection it brought. He learned to love himself, and to find compassion towards other hurting people, by watching Frankenstein and Creature of the Black Lagoon. How many children have come to see spiritual reality through Narnia?  To know Jesus through Aslan? What lessons of good and evil are being taught right now by Harry Potter? Whether they be fairy tales or silly horror movies, the imaginative realm is a reflection of human beings' ability to create their own worlds, with realities that reflect the depth of nature and the realities of good, evil, hope and redemption."

"For all the abuse we have suffered at the hands of those who believe Halloween is somehow the real world ( and that includes those humans who think themselves to be vampires and spend hours looking for ghosts), we must never forget those who celebrate our world purely and simply, without making it into an idol of fear or devotion. On our night, millions of children will enter into the world of the imagination and be enriched by doing so. They will safely sojourn in a world slightly different from their own and return better for it. Teenagers who take time off from being so serious to play and be children again. And certainly adults who continue to love the world of the imagination and return there often. To these person we owe our continued joy."

"So I propose a toast: to every little boy who goes to sleep dreaming of Hogwarts. To every mother who reads Narnia to her children. To every teenager devouring Lord of the Rings. To every grandmother who reads her granddaughter a ghost story. To every parent who shares their favorite scary movie with their child. To every young writer who writes the stories in which we live. To those who know to life, to jump and to delight at Sleepy Hollow. To all who give us this one night of frightful fun and remain little boys and girls, A TOAST!!"

Living a Courages Life

Courage is an expression of the heart

To be courageous is literally to be strong of heart.  It is an expression of the heart.  Both fear and courage are heart conditions. 

To follow Jesus Christ is to choose to live in His adventure.  How could any of us ever imagine a life of faith that does not require risk?  Faith and risk are inseparable.  It is no surprise to us then that a life of faith is a life of courage. 

Faith as a noun may be a belief, while having faith is all about action.  You cannot walk by faith and live in fear.  You cannot walk with God and not face your fears.

How faith works

We are seldom afraid when our opposition is smaller than us.  When we keep our challenges manageable, we not only manage our fear, but squelch our faith.  One way to deal with our fears is to surround ourselves with security and predictability.

We may look courageous when in fact all we’ve done is minimize our risk.  Whenever God calls us to something, it inspires not only faith, but also fear.  God always summons us to something bigger than ourselves. 

When he calls us to battle, the opposition will always be greater than the strength we have.

A cursory look at the Bible could easily lead us to conclude that the Scriptures are full of heroic men and women who laughed in the face of danger and were strangers to fear.  After all, just the names of those ancient men and women evoke inspiration and awe. 

Yet the reality is much different.  The history of God’s people is not a record of God searching for courageous men and women who could handle the task, but God transforming the hearts of cowards and calling them to live courageous lives.

Adam and Eve lid, Abraham lied; Moses ran; David deceived; Esther was uncertain; Elijah contemplated suicide; John the Baptist doubted; Peter denied; Judas betrayed.   These were some of the leading characters.

Acts 4:29 …”Lord, consider their threats and give your servants courage to speak your name with boldness”.

Why does one pray for courage?  For one reason only: He’s afraid.

Notice the kind of help they ask for - not that God would remove their enemies, not even that God would change the circumstances, but that God would give them courage to do what they knew they had to do.  

The Hebrew word “ruach”, which is normally translated “spirit,” “wind’, or “breath” can also be translated “courage”.  When God breathed His Spirit into us, He not only give us power but , more importantly, His courage. 

When  we read Paul’s admonition to: “be filled with the Spirit”, we often translate it to mean “be filled with God’s power.”  It would be far more accurate to understand it as ‘be filled with God’s courage”.  What is the point of having God’s power if you lack to courage to use it.

What God offers

What God offers when He invites us to be filled with the Spirit is not simply some elusive or magical power, but the character to live courageously and face our fears.  Without courage we cannot live the life we choose - instead we choose to relinquish life.  We conform to the path of least resistance and abdicate our freedom.  So in the end a life without courage is a life without virtue.

Moses was dead. It was only after Moses death that God spoke to Joshua.  Joshua was Moses aid, yet his first assignment was not only to take over where Moses left off, but to accomplish what Moses didn’t.  After forty years in the wilderness, Moses failed to get God’s people into the land that he had promised them.  Now God was telling Joshua that he would do what Moses couldn’t 

Two promises were given to Joshua,

#1 “I will give you every place where you set your foot”.

#2 “No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of  your life”.

A promise of conquest, yes, but not a promise of tranquility.

What God did not do:
It would have been great if God had commanded Joshua to set up camp along the Jordon and enjoy a season of fishing and sun bathing.  Everyone would have been thrilled if god had said, “there are giants in the land.  I need a little more time to get Canaan ready for you.  Just wait and be patient, enjoy your stay, and when everything is prepared I’ll send for you.”

 You can imagine what Joshua could have then said, “No Lord, I insist. Let me help You.  You shouldn’t go at this alone.”  Then God would have said,  “No, Joshua, this one’s too dangerous for you.  I’ll have to go it alone, but I’ll be back.  I would never think of putting you through this.”

God expected more from Joshua and His people.  God would give them the land, but they would have to take it. 

God would go with them but he would not go for them.

This was essentially the only conversation God held with Joshua to prepare him to lead. This was Joshua’s Achilles’ heel.  It was where Joshua needed reinforcement.  He was afraid to lead, but he would have to face his fears if he was to step into the future.  God exhorted Joshua to be strong and courageous, he was to live a courageous life.

God was calling Joshua to more than just a single act of courage; he was to live a courageous life.

The Strength of Courage

There is a difference between momentary courage and moral courage.  Momentary courage energizes you to rush into a burning building and save a child trapped in a fire.  Moral courage empowers you to live a life worthy of being emulated.  Both kinds of courage are important.  The first can be had without the second.  The second is far more profound, and affects every decision and everything in a person’s life.

The Hebrew word for “be strong” means to fasten yourself to something.  It is a picture of someone grabbing hold of that which is right and true and refusing to let go.  This is the pit bull part of character.  It is the tenacious part of courage.

It is called, Doing what we know is right.

The key to the future is not revelation, but obedience.  When we submit our lives to what God has made known, the future becomes clearer to us.  When we neglect to do what we know, we begin to live as if we were walking in a fog.  If we are not careful, we will find ourselves condemning God for being silent, when in fact we have condemned ourselves for refusing to listen.

You may not know how God is going to solve your financial crisis, but you can know that the solution is never to steal.  You may not know when God is going to bring that special person into your life, but the solution is not to compromise.  You may fear the consequence of telling the truth, but God’s solution is not to lie. 

One of the greatest mistakes we make in our spiritual journey is circumventing the process of accomplishing our God-given dreams by trying to achieve those dreams in a manner that violates God’s character.

Shalom  

What's wrong with Capitalism

Capitalism’s Problem

Capitalism, Webster’s Third International Dictionary tells us, is “an economic system based on corporate ownership of capital goods, with investment determined by private decision, and with prices, production, and the distribution of goods and services determined mainly in a free Markey. “  And I would add, it is “a system founded on honesty, decency, and trust.”

What’s at the root of the problems of American capitalism.  First, something changed socially, I quote teacher Joseph Campbell: “ In medieval times, as you approached a city, your eyes was taken by the Cathedral.  Today, it’s the towers of commerce (or once towers of commerce).  It’s business, business, business”.  We have become what Campbell called a “bottom-line society.”  Society came to measure the wrong bottom line: form over substance, prestige over virtues, money over achievement, charisma over character, the ephemeral over the enduring, even mammon over God. 

Our bottom line society has some accounting to reconcile in the exchanges mentioned above.  I quote chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks:  “When everything that matters can be bought and sold, when commitments can be broken because they are no longer to our advantage, slogans become our litany, when our worth is measured by how much we earn and spend, then the market is destroying the very virtues on which in the long run it depends.”

What has gone wrong? I quote William Pfaff’s description of a “pathological mutation in capitalism”. The classic system owners’ capitalism had been based on a dedication to serving the interest of the corporation’s owners in maximizing the return on their capital investments.  But a new system developed – managers capitalism – in which, Pfaff wrote, “the corporation came to be run to profit it’s managers, in complicity if not conspiracy with accountants and the managers of other corporations.” 

The age of managers capitalism has had dire consequences for our sense of fairness in western society.  As one comedian has said, “somebody gonna get hurt here”.  This hurt is seen in the rise in the gap between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots.  Some facts: In the mid – 1970, the wealthiest one percent of Americans owned about 18 percent of the nation’s financial wealth.  By the close of the twentieth century, the share owned by the top one percent has grown to 40 -(forty) percent, the highest share in the nations history.  A society that tolerates such differences in income and wealth is a society that faces long-term financial problems.

I do not claim to be a financial guru, but I do read and love research.  I plan on continuing this blog on Capitalism, as I believe our children will be faced with solving the global unfairness in the distribution of wealth.  With out solving or understanding these problems we will continue to face riots and disturbances leading to more wars in the coming future we leave to our children.