Listen For The Right Spirit This Halloween

Back in college, my fraternity sponsored a Halloween Haunted House. It was a lot of work, but it was really fun. During the setup, one of the guys brought an Ouija Board. This guy believed in every spiritual fad, political conspiracy theory and read Entertainment Weekly like it was the literal truth. He said, “You won’t believe this. It tells you exactly what’s going on.”

Always the skeptic, I and others agreed to watch while he peddled his wares on the impressionable freshmen pledges.

The room had to be dark. Candles had to be lit and everyone had to be quiet. He asked a bunch of questions with his fingers on the wooden piece that sat atop an archaic-written alphabet. Generally it was gibberish.

Then he asked the question, “What will happen on Halloween?” As the wooden planchette moved around the alphabet with the touch of their fingers, the letters, “U ... D… I ...” popped up. One of the freshmen yelled out, “Oh no! You’re going to die!”

Really messed him up for a while. And, you guessed it, he didn’t die.

Flash forward a few years to my first day of seminary. The group called “Wiccan” had just successfully sued seminaries to allow them in, and I sat at the same table with two Wiccan witches. Not a glorious day, mind you, but an informative one. As the semester progressed, I witnessed about the saving power of Jesus to them and hoped I made a difference in changing their spiritual views.

One day I asked one of the “witches” what they used in their toolkit. They each brought out a huge bag of stuff. There each had candles, poems and an Ouija Board.

“Do you really believe that stuff?” I asked when I saw the board.

“Oh yes!” they both exclaimed. “The spirits make it move.”

They wanted to read my fortune and I flippantly said, “Will it involve the letters, “U,” “D” and “I”?”

When I said that they both looked at each other in surprise and shock and immediately changed the subject.

My guess was it probably would.

With Halloween coming up there’s always a resurgence of people who want to talk about spirits and ghosts. I read an article once that said more than half of the people in this country believe in ghosts. Not just believe, but honestly say they’ve encountered a ghost, spirit or demon in some tangible way. One of the most popular shows on television is about a group of people who claim to be ghost hunters.

In the Bible we see that this isn’t a new thing. In Samuel I we see where Saul, consumed with sin and depression, went to see the Witch of Endor to get advice. ( It ended with parlor tricks and the letters, “U,” “D” and “I.” Imagine that.)

We’re all too ready to believe in ghosts and spirits and Ouija Boards and all sorts of wacky things but are too resistant to “Hearing the Good News” or “Repenting and being Baptized.” In the end the letters, “U,” “D” and “I” will come for all of us. So the question we should ask ourselves is do we want to spend our afterlife using parlor tricks to scare a bunch of college freshmen or living in wonder and happiness with our Creator.

This Halloween may the only true Spirit come upon you and may you learn to listen to what God is trying to say instead of seeking answers in all the wrong places.