Vincent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD8uQzu0IL0

I Am The Pumpkin King

I love Halloween. I love it for the same reasons that I was attracted to the Christian faith. Allow me to explain:

Jesus is my Tim Burton. He is the person who takes something that is ugly, distorted, twisted, evil in appearance, and uses it to create something beautiful, inspiring, and indicative of all of humanities plight. One of my favorite movies is “The Nightmare Before Christmas” . I watched it with Amanda two years ago in the theaters (it was re-released in 3D)  when I was at a low point from being discouraged and misunderstood in ministry. It resonated with me then, but I couldn’t express why. We recently rented it again, and as we were watching it Amanda said, “Do you sympathize with this character?”  That character being Jack Skellington, The Pumpkin King. And there it was. 1. Why the movie meant so much to me and 2. Why marriage is awesome. 

Jack was a part of a community of misfits in Halloween Town. It was hideous and dysfunctional, yet Jack belonged there. Jack thrived in this environment, yet he was very discontent. Leaving his town behind he went on a journey to find something new. What he found was Christmas town. Christmas town was beautiful, sentimental, warm, exciting, pure, and curious. Jack decided to abandon what he knew in order to pursue assimilating into Christmas town (I said as much as I could without spoiling it). The results are disastrous, and Jack finally comes to terms with what he is.  

                For me, this has become an allegory of my experience with my brothers and sisters in the faith. My brethren are from Christmas town. They have their own culture, their own traditions, their own codes of conduct, their own dress code, their own language, and their own sense of belonging. They are a community of beautiful, good, upstanding, moral people. 

                For almost nine years I have tried to be one of them. For nine years I have tried to be beautiful, pure, well behaved, and well mannered. For the first six years of that journey I was like Jack, who with excitement sang:

…What's this? What's this?
There's something very wrong
What's this?
There's people singing songs

What's this?
The streets are lined with
Little creatures laughing
Everybody seems so happy
Have I possibly gone daffy?
What is this?
What's this?...

There's frost on every window
Oh, I can't believe my eyes
And in my bones I feel the warmth
That's coming from inside

These days I’m feeling pretty healthy, and with emotional health comes the realization that my home is in Halloween town, and that I do not need Christmas town to embrace me. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas town. I love the people who go there, but I prefer the deviant, the drunkard, the broken, the ugly, the abused, the neglected, the vulgar, and the rejected. I have been ignoring them for far too long in hopes that I might win the approval of Christmas town. 

I am what I have been created to be. I cannot argue with my creator any differently. For a brief period of time, I am at peace with what I am… and I care very little how others perceive it. 

May the peace of Christ abide in you; that you might find peace wherever you were created to reside, Christmas town or Halloween town. 

"A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' "But they all alike began to make excuses…            The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame….” - Jesus