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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Warm Bodies Movie and Finding True Life

Hi Friends,

I went to see the romantic-comedy-zombie movie, Warm Bodies, with my 13-year-old daughter last night.  Very cute movie, enjoyed it a lot.  And of course, it got me thinking about God and Finding True Life in Real Life.

In the movie, the story is told through the perspective of R, a zombie who longs for life.  He and the others have a semblance of life - they can move, think in a limited fashion, get from place to place (if slowly!).    They look like they have life, but they're dead.

R plays records, collects things, and yes, eats brains to try to capture a bit of real life.  But these things fail him.  Only love brings him true life.  Only love can change him, make him alive.  And that love, that life, is contagious.  Only it can cure him ...

And that is very essence of the good news of Jesus in our own lives.  We have a semblance of life.  We walk, we talk (a little), but we're the walking dead.  We're ruled by the drives of our "undead" bodies.  And we long for real life.  We grasp onto glimpses of it.  We play our music, we try to remember what we were made for by God.  But we can't.  We moan and stumble.  And then God, in His incredible love for us, breaks into our dead lives.

His love gives us life, real life, true life.  He changes us, transforms us, makes us new.  He gives us what we long for.


The Bible says in Ephesians 2:1-5, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world ... All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts...But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved!"

We are new creations, true living people, because of His love for us!  It's not just any love that saves us, that remakes us, cures us ... it's Love Himself.  The One who IS love.  

And that is a gift, a wonder, an amazing, breath-taking, incredible, beautiful fact that should make all the deadness in our hearts disappear.  It should make us sing ... and come fully to life.  

We don't have to be zombies anymore  ... because God loves you.  Loves you enough to sacrifice himself so that you may have Life and have it abundantly (John 10:10).  He offers life, real life, through his love.  How can we be content to wander the airports of our lives with pale skin, unbeating hearts, groaning lips, unable to connect with others, living the lives of the undead dead.  

God, his love alone, sets us free.  And we live in full color, in full life, when we bask in His love, when we live in it and allow it to make us new, make us whole, make us alive, transform us fully!

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