How popular holidays affect Feast and Sabbath-keepers?

How popular holidays affect Feast- and Sabbath-keepers?

The writer is the 13-year-old daughter of Dixon and Linda Cartwright of Big Sandy.

By Jamie Cartwright

BIG SANDY, Texas"Hey, you're not wearing green! Whadda ya mean you don't keep St. Patrick's Day? Everybody does!"

"But why don't you keep Easter?"

"So what'd ya get for Christmas? You don't celebrate it? Why not? I thought you said you were a Christian."

"How much candy did you get for Halloween?"

"You're kidding! You really don't have a TV?"

Ah, yes, just a few of the questions often asked me that I find highly annoying, especially the TV one, which is always accompanied by a gaping mouth.

But that's beside the point. What I'm talking about here today is how all the popular holidays affect us Feast- and Sabbath-keepers.

For me, anyway, the Christmas question is the one most often asked. I never know quite what to answer; I've toyed with going into major detail and scripture or just saying, "We don't believe in parents lying to their kids about fat men getting stuck in their chimneys."

They both seem to draw out an "Oh."

It's not that on occasion I haven't worn green to school on St. P.'s Day to avoid getting my arms pinched off or haven't stared amazingly at people's yard decorated with millions of glittering minilights and remarked on their electric bill.

But, frankly, I am tired of the whole thing. So far I don't believe I've ever heard the remark made to anybody: "You don't keep the Feast of Tabernacles? Why on earth not? You said you were a Christian."

Nope, it's just go with the flow these days. I know a fellow who doesn't know a single thing about the Bible (and it was pretty hilarious when I started telling him all these amazing biblical stories), yet he keeps the big Santa Claus season. That's pretty pathetic for all those people out there who use the excuse "But it's Christ's birthday!" for their keeping the pagan thing. Uh-huh. Sure.

One of my good friends is not in the church. We've had many discussions about Christmas, both of us extremely stubborn at all times and neither of us relenting. It's frustrating, really, to know that you have to wait till a person is called by God before he'll listen to reason.

Many of the why-don't-you-keep-such-and-such conversations happen on the computer, since I positively adore signing on to America Online and chatting my fingers off. It feels weird being the only one in my circle of online friends who suddenly disappears for a week or two to enjoy the Feast.

Oh, well. Whenever anybody asks me about it, I go into great descriptive detail about how incredibly fun it is to go traveling and meet all sorts of new friends and usually splurge a little more at the fancy restaurants. Make 'em jealous, I say.

And then there's Easter. Oh, sure, I like going on little scavenger hunts. One time a lot of my relatives got together and made this huge treasure hunt for me and my cousins. We trekked all over my house searching for clues-going outside and in and finally digging through the pine needles to find a glorious little treasure chest filled with jewelry and lots of candy.

But it was no holiday. There was no hideous jackalope or whatever it is that hops around that time of year. Not that it would've helped.

In short, I want to know why it is we are so strange, we people called by God. I blame it on the movies. Hey, you can blame everything on the movies. Think of all the Christmas specials on TV.

Actually, of course, that's not true, though it might contribute to the pagan-influenced way of life. What is really killing me is, well, why? Why do there have to be so many people who don't understand? Best friends, enemies, close acquaintances, relatives-good people, wrong thinking. But why? "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?" (Psalm 2:1).

Of course, the reason we live at all on this earth and are not born spirit beings is so's we can build character for when the resurrection comes. To build character we must have problems set before us so we can make right decisions. To do that we must have those problems, and to get those we need bad people in this world, or at least misinformed people.

That sounds really stupid, doesn't it? But if the world were perfect and everybody were good, how would we build character to be in the resurrection? But if the world were really perfect we would be as angels, and aren't we supposed to be higher than the angels when the Big End comes? Closer to God the better, I say.

So I hope this will help with the annoying question of "Why is there so much paganism around?" And don't blame me; I voted for Bush.

If you'd like to E-mail Miss Cartwright with any questions or comments regarding her article (or anything else, for that matter), her address is jmctexas@aol.com. If you'd like to send her a TV, please mail it to The Journal, P.O. Box 1020, Big Sandy, Texas 75755. (Just kidding, but I positively could not resist. Nothing like talkin' about yourself in the third person, eh?)

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