Good morning, Good Shepherd!
Tomorrow night I’m going to be walking around our neighborhood with Taylor Swift and a banana. Parenthood is a strange, wonderful adventure.
After much deliberation, Ellio has finally settled on his Halloween costume. He’s going to be a banana. The funny thing is, a banana wasn’t even on his list of possibilities. He’d been going back and forth for a while, trying to decide what he wanted to be…usually between Star Wars characters. Then he walked into a store, saw a banana costume, and apparently that was it. Decision made.
Esther, on the other hand, is going as Taylor Swift. She’s known this for months, which tracks with both of their personalities.
One of the things I love most about Halloween is the way it brings our neighborhood together.
Every year, we meet up with some neighbors and walk the streets with the kids. Rikki and one of our neighbors usually stay back in the driveway to hand out candy. And more often than not, we end the evening hanging out at someone’s house.
It’s become one of my favorite neighborhood traditions. And the older I get, the more I appreciate how unusual it is. How many other nights of the year do people open their doors to complete strangers, gather in their driveways, and spend time talking with neighbors they might otherwise rarely see?
We live in a world where it’s increasingly easy to go through life without really knowing the people who live around us. We pull into our garages, close the doors, and go about our lives. But for one night, there’s an invitation to slow down and connect.
And you don’t have to have kids who are trick-or-treating to participate. All it really takes is pulling a chair into the driveway, putting out a bowl of candy, and being willing to strike up a conversation. There’s something beautiful about that.
At Good Shepherd, we talk a lot about building community and loving our neighbors. But sometimes those things don’t require a big program or a complicated plan. They begin with showing up, learning someone’s name, or making room for a conversation.
So whatever your plans are tomorrow night, I hope you’ll find a chance to connect with someone. You never know what might grow out of a simple conversation.
Before I go, a quick word about Sunday. We’re wrapping up our Life After Death series by wrestling with some of the toughest questions of faith, including judgment, hell, and what happens to people who don’t believe. These aren’t easy questions, but they’re worth exploring together. I hope you’ll join us!
Have a wonderful Halloween, and I’ll see you Sunday!
Peace,
Matt
