Bad Candy

Well, Halloween is just around the corner. For some this holiday will get them excited, others will get nervous. It may mean dressing up in a gruesome, bloody costume, or something like a princess or fireman costume. Of course there will be your superheroes such as Batman, Spiderman, Superman, and new on the scene, Ironman. Some will forgo the trick or treating for church fall festivals or celebrations of Reformation day, the day Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg (if you have no clue what that's about and want to know, contact me and I'll be glad to discuss it with you).

While all of those activities mentioned above vary in how they are carried out, what's the one thing they have in common. Candy! Ok, celebrating reformation day with candy may be a stretch, but it could happen. :)

One of my favorite comedians is Tim Hawkins. Stephanie and I went to his live show 2 years ago with another couple and had a blast. Here's his take on bad candy he got as a kid:


There's not many people that don't like candy. If you were like me growing up you went trick or treating, either in your neighborhood, a church, the fire station, police office, or a festival. What did your parents say about the candy? My parents said they had to go through the candy to see if any had been opened or damaged. They told me the horror stories of people poisoning and putting dangerous objects in the candy. While that may be true, for the most part I think my parents wanted to take inventory and pick out the good candy for themselves. Being responsible parents, we do this as well...just to be sure it's safe.

Now, thinking about Halloween and potentially poisoned candy made me think of the more serious effects of eating candy. Being a Christian, I believe in a real devil, Satan, who wants to deceive and destroy us. As scripture says in 1 Peter 5:8 "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour". Sometimes he roars and makes himself known, at other times though he's more cunning and deceptive in his approach. How does he do this? Well, sometimes by offering us candy. I hope by now you know that I'm not talking about snickers or kit-kats. So many times we see something that looks great, sweet as candy, pleasing to the eyes. The problem is that there's poison in it that we can't see. We only realize this when we've taken a bite, or possibly eaten the whole piece. We usually don't think about the consequences of eating the candy, we just choose to, because we want to. To make it worse our friends are eating the candy and it seems ok. On top of that the tv and the internet says it's ok as well. Then after we bite, whether it's at that moment or days, weeks, months, or even years later, we realize there was poison in the candy. We can blame our circumstances, our friends, tv, or the internet, but the truth is that it's our desires that caused us to take a bite. James 1:14 says "but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed". If you notice I'm not saying what the 'candy' is because I think it could be different for each person. I am saying that it's not something outside of us that's the problem, it's us and our desires.

I ask that each of us look out for the poisonous candy out there that may tempt us to take a bite, because after all....it may contain poison.