A Halloween lesson--and candy, too!

Saturday, October 31, 2009
The Joyful Mysteries
Romans 11:1-2a, 11-12, 25-29
Psalm 94:12-13a, 14-15, 17-18
Luke 14:1, 7-11
I am reminded by the gospel of the last time (I think) I ever went trick-or-treating. I am fuzzy on some of the details but the lesson I learned on this particular night has stayed with me after all these years.

There was a group of us-- my brother Tom was with me, as well as my best friend (at the time) Cal Rasmussen. There were about 3 or 4 others, too. We were out to get as much candy as we could: which was, incidentally the whole idea of Halloween! If I had to wear an embarrassing costume to meet the objective, OK. I was never comfortable at Halloween, and it's still not my favorite holiday, but my sweet tooth will always win over my will power.

We all carried pillowcases to put our "stash" into. Our objective was to fill the pillowcases and then go back to the house and sort it out into what we liked and didn't like and trade with one another until everybody was satisfied with the loot.

As happens with kids who are together for any real length of time, some tempers flared and envy over who was getting more candy, who had the better costume, and even who shouted "Trick or Treat" the loudest were the cause of the tantrums. I'll admit that I was a part of the problem until it came time to knock on the next door. Then I was "all business" and the arguments had to stop. After all, who would give candy to kids who were not behaving well?

Some in our "gang" didn't know when to stop however, and when we knocked on the door of one particularly mean-looking guy there was so much arguing going on that no one remembered to yell "Trick or Treat"!

The man asked in a booming voice, "Who's in charge of this group? Who's their leader?" I'll be honest with you. He scared the s _ _ _ out of us! So the arguing stopped and everybody's jaws started to quiver. We thought that if we said just one more word, we would get in some sort of trouble. So no one said anything. Except me, that is. All I could think of to say was, "Trick or Treat!" in the smallest voice I could muster.

All of a sudden the guy let out a huge laugh and said to me, "I KNEW you were the leader! Only a real leader would stand at the back of the pack and come up with a plan to ACT like one and get the job done!" Then he said, "Since you're the leader, I'm going to give YOU the candy for your group and let you decide how to share it." Here I was, only trying to see how much candy I could get wearing some sort of costume I'm sure I was embarrassed to be wearing, and this guy calls me a leader and throws responsibility my way as well!

I truly believe that man-who I never saw again-gave me more confidence in myself than I ever knew I could have. He also showed me from humility comes strength of character. As I look back on it now (and as I have many times since it first occurred) I was "taking the lowest place at the table" and I was "invited up to a place of honor". I will forever be grateful to that man because I would not have the confidence in my leadership abilities today if not for him.