We are the Walking Dead

Over the past three weeks or so, I’ve developed a new bad habit. I’m slightly ashamed to admit it, but it’s true.

Yes, I’m fascinated with “The Walking Dead”. You know, the television show on AMC that’s setting cable TV records?

Thanks to Netflix, I’m now almost halfway through season two. Completely sucked in.

No, it’s not the zombie gore that I enjoy (although, truth be told, what red-blooded American male doesn’t enjoy a good head shot?)… it’s the character interactions. The idea of a post-apocalyptic zombified America, where small tribes of people simply are trying to survive. The concept of a time where the rule of law is completely gone, and survival presents the constant opportunity for stretching moral law… where what’s “right” for survival runs completely counter to what’s truly, well… right?

It’s definitely interesting.

I suppose you could find this kind of drama in other shows. But you just can’t have “The Walking Dead” without the “walkers”… the zombie hoards that simultaneously make the show a farce of believability yet enable the moral dilemnas for the characters that make it so fascinating. Zombies obviously make “The Walking Dead” tick.

So on Halloween, I suppose it’s appropriate that I’m thinking of this. The Walking Dead. (If you don’t make the connection there, I’m worried about you.)

Fact is, I see so many parallels to our lives.

You see, we ARE the walking dead. Our friends. Our neighbors. Our families. Yes, even ourselves.

Dead men (and women) walking.

Going through the motions of life, yet not really living.

Obsessed with the moment by moment details, yet numb to the big picture.

Satisfied only with fulfilling our own appetites (okay, that’s really gross in context of zombies, I know… don’t go there) for pleasure, power, wealth, beauty, recreation… you name it.

Alive, yet dead.

Spiritually, that’s where most people truly are. And I’m not just talking about those lost in sin and trespass, numb to their perilous state. It’s Christians too… people who know and believe they’ve been saved by the grace of God, yet are doing anything but living life for Him.

You see, we walking dead miss the point of life in so many ways.

Focused on self, we miss the joy of giving and sharing our life with others.

Focused on our hurts, we miss the blessing of sharing in others sufferings and bearing their burdens.

Focused on our inadequacies, we close our hearts to the possibilities God has for us and miss out on His miraculous provision.

Need I go on?

Fact is, Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good, or good people better. He came to give dead people life: