Costume

Last night I was a glowing jellyfish.  I couldn’t wait for the sun to set because, in the light, my costume looked like a lot of recyclables stuck to the top of my helmet.  Wearing all black with my costume, I turned on the lights and floated off into the darkness on my Onewheel.  People said it looked awesome and I feel fairly confident that it was truly a unique and amazing sight to see! 

This is the first year in several that I have actually done the costume “thing” like i did growing up. Those who knew us as children may remember that my brother, sister and I consistently—year after year—had amazing and unique costumes.

My mother gets all the credit. She made Halloween awesome. Traditionally, being one of those evenings that “walls come down,” unconstructive behaviors and poor decisions do happen. When those walls come down there is also potential for amazing constructive things to occur as well. My mom is an expert on the creative process and Halloween was one of those opportunities of which we took full advantage. She would encourage us to dream…”What do you want to be?”…and then help us make that dream a reality. For one night, if you wanted to be a firetruck, you were a firetruck.

Putting on a costume, jumping into a different character, inevitably breaks down walls. It’s amazing how sometimes representing something that you are not can help to reveal more of who you really are.  

Being the people God created us to be, individuals God is calling us to be, is hard.  We begin to “sport” these semi-permanent “costumes” depending on where we are and who we are around.  We develop unique identities for work, school, church, etc. and over time it’s easy to forget the real person behind those costumes.  

The ability to choose our identities is surely one of the best, most challenging, gifts God creates in us.  Work hard to know—remember—who you truly are because living into that truth makes a world of difference!  You being You is a truth your soul needs and it’s a truth the whole world needs more of, too!

“God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless in God’s presence before the creation of the world.” Ephesians‬ ‭1:4‬ ‭CEB‬‬