Happy Halloween, everyone! On this spookiest-of-days, I want to share with you something I learned years ago while passing through a cemetery.

I had actually been driving around fairly aimlessly and I asked the Lord where I should go. I felt Him directing me to a large cemetery.

It was a bright, cool, autumn afternoon, so it wasn’t exactly scary. I drove slowly through the cemetery so I could read all of the headstones that I was passing by. I thought about each person and wondered what their life might have been like.

I arrived at the center of the cemetery and looked around.

I had a sudden chill as I realized that I was alone, the only person alive, surrounded by hundreds of dead people. It was a little eerie.

Lord, what am I doing here?

I started to think about what I had just done – driving slowly down the rows, carefully paying attention to each person’s gravestone, and realizing that they had all passed away.

I felt an impression in my mind…

Unless you slow down and pay attention, you’ll never see the dead people all around you.

Although it sounds a bit morbid, I don’t think this was about ‘the walking dead’ or zombies or anything like that.

However, according to God’s view of things, all of us have been poisoned by the deadly venom of sin.

Many people are hurting and dying – in sin, in relational dysfunction, in fear, in poverty, in broken relationship with God.

Yet Jesus came and died for us that we could not only live, but live abundantly.

Unless we slow down and pay attention, we will miss all of the opportunities to speak life and healing into those around us. Even opportunities to introduce dying people to Jesus, the author of life.

So, sometimes it can be a good thing to slowly go through a cemetery. You might want to try it someday – maybe not in the dark – or on Halloween. 🙂

It reminded me of my own frailty and the fact that one day I will also be in the dirt.

But it also inspired me that I can be a blessing to those around me that might be hurting.

I hope my story does the same for you.

Have a happy and safe Halloween.