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Be Brave...But Not Too Brave

Pac-Man Ghost Sours!
Have you ever been in one of those setting where ghost stories run rampant? Perhaps you're at a campfire or maybe it's an old abandoned house. Either way, it's creepy. Chances are there's some punk kid who is going around, sneaking up on people and screaming.

There's always at least one of that kid.

Well, as much as I hate to admit this, that place where ghost stories exist is also a place I walk in every single day. I work at a church and there have been rumors. I had heard stories from the past. But that's all they were. Just fun stories.

However, recently, more stories have surfaced, some even told by people I wouldn't expect to hear ghost stories from. What makes our stories unique? Our ghost whistles.

Yes. We apparently have a whistling ghost. Why does he whistle? He hasn't told me, but I assume it's because he doesn't know the words.

I digress. People have heard the whistling from different areas of our building, a large 2-story edifice. (I'm hoping the use of big words will help restore my cred from any doubters out there.) Sadly, I'm among those who have heard the whistle.

I'd like to, as I once did, just pass off these stories as fanciful and of the sort of legend that's fun to tell, but mostly unbelievable. After all, ghosts don't exist, do they? So I do what I always do when I need answers. I turned to the Bible. What did I find?

Both Mark 6 and Luke 24 record times when the disciples thought they saw a ghost. Of course, both times the ghost was actually no ghost at all. It was Jesus. But still they had the idea of a ghost, which meant they had heard stories as well.

Then I recalled 1 Samuel 28. It's the story of the dingy King Saul conjuring up the spirit of the prophet Samuel from the dead. They have a conversation. It actually happened. The Bible uses the word 'spirit.' But is there any real distinction? Spirits. Ghosts. Neither one should I be seeing for the most part.

I was discussing this with my 11-year old daughter the other day. She theorized that maybe no one knows why there's a ghost whistling at our church because no one has stayed around long enough to listen. After a conversation in which we debated that perhaps a whistling ghost is a friendly ghost, I assured her I would hang around next time I heard it.

To which she replied, "Well, make sure someone's with you, just in case."
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