For Wilshire Baptist Church
We had approximately 100 kids at our door for Halloween this year. I say “we,” but it actually was just LeAnn, because with COVID, I heard the kids and sometimes I peeked from a distance, but I didn’t get near the door.
This is my first time in the COVID barrel, and I won’t go on about it because while my case is mild, many have had horrific experiences with it, and beyond that, I think we’re all tired of talking about it. I’ll just say that COVID is neither a trick nor a treat to be shared at the door on Halloween night or at any other time.
But there’s a lot of other things going on outside the door that also are neither trick nor treat. Election Day is coming fast, and when the bags of votes are poured out on the table for sorting beginning at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, there’s going to be some folks pleased with their haul and some disappointed; some will love their chocolate kisses, while others pucker at the sweet tarts and sour patches. If we feel more tricked than treated, we need to consider whether we helped stock the shelves that we’re now being served from.
The economy is a mixed bag as well. The financial markets have been taking one step forward and two steps back recently. Workplaces still are shadowed by COVID, and inflation is eating at everyone’s buying power. Your retirement fund, if you are fortunate to have one, probably looks like a Halloween bag with a corner cut out.
If you’ve lived long enough, you know this is not the first time we’ve been through a troubling economic and political cycle. I was a young college newspaper reporter during the 1980 presidential campaign. Like now, there was a lot of angst and promises made on how to fix things. With no internet and social media, you had to read the daily paper or watch the nightly network news to get enough information to form an opinion. Your other alternative was to go and hear the candidates in person. I saw incumbent President Jimmy Carter at Union Station in Dallas, and Ronald Reagan at the old James Connally Air Force Base in Waco. To be honest, I was more interested in getting a good picture of them for the paper and a photo credit for my clip file than I was absorbing what they had to say.
It was more about me and less about others at the time, which may be the norm because most college students and young people of that age are the center of their own universe as they consider their newfound place in the world. They’re not much different than kids going from door to door on Halloween night, holding their bags open and expecting people to toss in the goodies.
But then life happens, and you find yourself on the other side of the door. Hopefully wisdom and faith have increased with age and experience and you understand that not everyone is equipped with the same means and opportunities; you hear and answer the call to share what you’ve been given. You don’t hand out cynical tricks and treats that don’t last; you offer resources, ideas and opportunities along with empathy and compassion. You think beyond yourself in the voting booth; you vote with both your head and your heart.
The kids who came to our door for Halloween were polite and full of enthusiasm and expectation, and the same seemed true for the parents who accompanied them. I hope they will retain that joy and optimism for as long as they can. If they do, they’ll find it easier to live and give with a generous heart.