Sharing the Antidote

"A Zombie Healer"
@ZomBcon Seattle Oct '11
Photo by Matthew Wynne

"Do you want to be made well?"

Jesus' words to a paralytic sitting by the pool of Siloam echo in my mind as I contemplate the drastic shifting of a few relationships that has occurred in my life very recently.  As a theological zombie, on account of my relationship with Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life, I have access to the antidote of the zombie virus. 

Love of God and love of neighbor is the clear antidote.  It takes time to work, and our bodies, minds and spirits go through a series of trials and errors within us.  The virus attempts to make us reject, or to develop antibodies that attack the antidote in our system; but if we return to our Creator at regular intervals and accept the guidance of the Great Physician, we will defeat the virus.  We will remember what it means to be human.

If you've read my previous posts, you'll know that I fully admit that I am somewhere in the midst of battling the zombie virus, both inwardly and in society.  I am working with the Great Physician in attempt to help my body, mind and spirit not to reject the antidote.  I am not yet cured of the zombie virus.  I am in the process of being healed.

Bearing that in mind, I, like all Christ-followers, am called to bring the antidote to the infected.  You can see that I am sharing the Gospel, the Love of God and the Love of others and the Love of creation with you all here on this blog, dear ones.  I am trying to live a life that reflects this love so that our Lord might be glorified and that you might be encouraged along your own healing journey. 

Yes, I loose my way sometimes.  Yes, I stumble along the pathway of life.  Still, I am called to this work of healing and redemption.  So, dear ones, are you.

In our work, dear ones, we will encounter those who cannot envision life without the infection.  The zombie virus has a way of changing the perspective of its victims and skewing the vision of all.  When infected we see one another as threats and moving targets.  Devour or be devoured.  This becomes our motto.  We have a strange view of reality.

When a helper comes along - a healer who is in the midst of being healed - we have a tendency to see them as the enemy.  Because we have been so wounded by others and have a warped sense of what is going on all around us, we cannot accept their help.  When healers come and wish to correct our vision, we claim that they are going to gouge out our eyes.  The virus within us convinces us that they have never had our well-being in their minds and that they have never been on our side.

On account of the virus, we view our Creator as Destroyer, our Beloved as our Enemy and our Breath of Life as the Harbinger of Death.  Because we are infected, friends quickly turn into enemies without warning, the good gift of creation is viewed as the curse from a twisted child, and everything and everyone around us takes on a dark, colorless hue. 

We trust no one.  We run from everything.  We close in on ourselves or lash out at others, and we loathe our very existence.

Dear ones, I had an experience where I have, in the last twenty-four hours, been completely rejected.  A fellow zombie who I know has been in need of healing for quite some time was drawing lines in the sand, challenging another to cross.  Semantics, theology and pontifications were brought into the area that I clearly saw becoming a boxing ring.  Because I stepped over the lines myself and said, "enough", my fellow zombie, a dearly loved relative, has lashed out at me.  I don't even know if I protected the younger zombie, nor if that younger one wanted my protection in the first place.  Perhaps that wasn't even the purpose for standing up.

Drawing lines in the sand and defining groups as "us" and "them, while it may seem to be helpful, is counter productive to the work of Healing.  I stood up because I know this is true.  I challenged the words of my fellow zombie and pointed this one towards the realization that their rationale was a little off.  But I did not ask my fellow zombie if they wanted to be made well. 

Past experience shows that the answer would be negative.  When they are ready, the offer to dialogue still stands.  I certainly desire to share the antidote with that one and the many others whom I have seen infected with the same strand of virus.

What of this experience, though?  What did it accomplish if not the healing of this particular zombie?  I did certainly alienate this one, for I am now viewed as the enemy.  On account of this, my spirit weeps. 

Yet in the midst of the encounter, because it took place in a semi-public forum, I also have come to see that there are other zombie-healers with callings similar to my own.  From them I gather courage.  With them I can commiserate when healing is rejected, and with them I can rejoice when healing is accepted.

I am certain that more will be written about this.  But for now this is enough.  There is hope.  Healing is possible.  An antidote is present in the world, and through the Breath of Life called the Spirit of God, this antidote is moving throughout the earth.  I pray that healing will spread as quickly as a wildfire!  Until the zombie virus is contained and removed once and for all by the hand of our Creator and Beloved, let us work to spread the Gospel of Healing and work to remove the boundaries of "us" and "them".

In Jesus' name, amen.