Costume Parties and Pumpkins

Something that i've learnt from my Dad's side of the family in the last couple of years is not to take things so seriously, to have fun with what you're given. Something else that i learnt from them in the years of growing up was to use your imagination which, i'll admit has not always been helpful at times.

They brought me up on movies like the Dark Crystal and the Neverending Story, with people like Dorothy and the characters from Oz, including the Nome King that didn't like chickens and, more relevant to this blog, ha, Jack Pumpkinhead. There was Star Trek and Ewoks. Fantasy was their mainstream imagination.

I'm not usually one to join in with these sort of debates because i most usually just can't be bothered. But something i've noticed on Twitter a lot lately is the Halloween abuse. Of course it mostly stems from Christians and that's fair enough, it's not exactly a Christian holiday. But i've seen it more from Australians than Americans.

Again, fair enough, Halloween is not a traditional Australian Holiday either, it's mostly an American fuss that the few Australians enjoy as well, so i can understand the proud fascist Australians who might hold this in disregard and each to their own i guess. I think Australians forget that Americans have grown up with this holiday and so their understanding and their culture of Halloween is different to our concept of what it is.

But whilst i understand that the origins of Halloween are not in fact Christian, i never realised people also don't approve of dressing up, throwing a party in costume and even making a day of pumpkin carving.

Pumpkin carving is strangely fascinating. It's something i've become acquainted with recently just for the sheer reason that i wanted to participate in it once in my life. The lengths that some people go to carving their pumpkins is AMAZING (check out the extremes here) but i think mine will just be a simple jack-o-lantern similar to the ones on this website.

Now again, people will criticise me for including pumpkin carving in this blog because a pumpkin was originally set out to ward off evil spirits. I recently went to a page where a family had made a day out of carving their pumpkins. There wasn't anything evil about it, they were just an ordinary family spending some quality time together, getting their hands messy with pumpkin guts, ready to carve pumpkins. You can scroll down to their pictures here.

I'm not saying that it's all goodness. Yes, it does open the door to evil and yes it is a day when pagan activities are indulged in just like any other sinful behaviour that happens around the world 24/7, sin is sin.

What I'm saying is that for the majority of us (or Americans i should say) is that it's just a day of fun, imagination and creativity, mostly for the little kids. We live in a sinful world. But ignoring Halloween or getting rid of Halloween or even criticising and judging it, is not going to make this world any less sinful.

I think i would rather choose to actively make the world i live in a positive one, to make do with what i've got and maybe, just maybe in the process of doing that, i might have the awesome opportunity to share Jesus with someone.

Unbroken

The lyrics of this song are so intense and pretty much sum me up - thank you Stan!

(The big, bold words are ones i really love!!)

I don't know what this is
But I can tell it's something that I can't miss
It's like your showing me where happiness lives
And all I have the strength to do is turn to you
With every empty space

I'm missing pieces only you can replace
I'm like a package saying please don't *break*
The contents are fragile, so I'm glad your here to stay

I can promise you that this heart
Was brighter than a falling star
And all the money that I could take
Now theres nothing more I can break

You picked up my pieces and put me together
There's no way you'd ever know
That my heart was breaking
Cause you came and threw me a line
I was falling apart but now I'm falling forever
For someone who wont let go
My love's a token
Because of you I'm unbroken
Now every piece of my heart is falling back into place

Time stops
When I'm with you I count the seconds I got
Cause every minute I was something I'm not
You give them back to me
It's like history, don't mean a thing
When I try to run away I can't hide
I'm in the dark and all I see is your light
And your shining brighter than anything I've ever seen

And I can promise you this heart
Will be a falling star
Cause you know what it means

You picked up my pieces and put me together
There's no way you'd ever know

I just woke up from a dream when I was in one piece
No fragment of me had ever seen these streets
Love held me together and it never let me go

Now every piece of my heart is falling back into place

Unbroken by Stan Walker

R U OK?

In a usual blog, i don't often have anything worth blogging about but in this blog i do, i can assure of that. For those of you who know me, you know that i almost always wear my heart on my sleeve, so in the spirit of doing just that, what i'm about to write next is personal to me, but i'm ok and i think that if we all share our story, someone going through something similar might think they're ok too....

From the age of about 17 through til i was about 23, i was plagued with thoughts of suicide at almost every turn. Thoughts that, had Jesus not have 'picked up my pieces', so to speak, i might not have been here to tell that story.

I've never had great self-esteem/self worth, never had a huge bundle of friends and not really even had that one close friend you share everything with but i've learnt to deal with it.

I've always hidden these sort of feelings with a mask of loudness, being outgoing and to a point being obnoxious and outspoken to cover my insecurity of being fat and not being good enough and of being a failure.

It got to a point at the age of 18 where I didn't want to be alive anymore and had all these feelings of self-hate and thought of ways to end my life completely. You name it, i thought it. Slitting my wrists, hanging myself, overdosing. At that age i wasn't aware that one could gas themselves in a car and so the fear of physical pain outweighed my emotional and mental pain enough to keep me alive i guess.

Between the ages of 21 and 23 i used guys to fill that void of loneliness and not people i knew either, complete strangers.

At a Salvation Army christian conference, Double Impact, Jesus came between myself and all the wrong lies i'd been told or had told myself up until that point. I now have a committed relationship with him because he told me the truth about myself and i live my life with Jesus as a central priority of my life.

He gives me joy where there was sadness, he is a friend when there is loneliness, he loves on me when i am unloved, he tells me the truth when the enemy fills my head with lies.

And that's just it, there ARE times when all these things come back to haunt me but i have full confidence and faith in a God who is faithful and who loves me limitlessly, who knows my true self-worth. And there are some days where i DO feel down in the dumps and beside myself but God picks me up and shows me what the purpose for my life is, he continues to love on me on those days of self-loathing and when i spend the time with him, he speaks words of healing over my life and of comfort and peace, soooo many times he's filled my heart with peace.

But it's because of his grace and mercy and love that i can tell people that IT IS OK! There is more to life, more to live for, more than what you think there is at the end of the day.

Those that are hurting might not believe in Jesus and that's fine, that is completely their own decision and the point of this story is not to 'bible bash' someone into a relationship with Christ, although if they DID come into a relationship with him because of this, that would be super cool. But the point is that there are so many obstacles we have to face in life but that we're not alone! Everyone has to cross them at some point, everyone. What you choose to do with that obstacle is what sets you apart from the rest of the 'rat race'. And if it seems too difficult, like you just can't keep going, you HAVE to know that there IS help out there, there ARE people EXACTLY in your same situation, people that KNOW how it feels to feel sad and feel lonely and to feel hurt mentally, spiritually, physically or emotionally, you don't have to do it alone, and the thought of taking one's own life should NEVER have to be an option!

That's just my story in a nutshell and sadly, i KNOW there are people whose story is much more heart-breaking than mine which is why it's SO important to ask people how they're holding up and how they're doing.

And to all my friends who regularly support, encourage and love me, YOU are Jesus in my life - you're the ones who keep me going! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

To Katie Ryan/Reid and Pip Almond, your love and generosity is one that i will forever remember and a love that has changed my life completely!!!!

So having said all that, the actual point of my blog is that it's 'R U OK?' day. Who have you asked if they're ok? Who are you GOING to ask if they're ok?

So....

R U OK??? What's your story???

www.ruokday.com.au