The Zombie Cure - Valentine's Day Devotion

Have I mentioned that I am a romance addict? That’s right, a complete and utter hopeless romantic.  My addiction started when I was 13 years old.  I blame it on the romantic tale of a motorcycle riding, bad boy named Bo Brady and a snobbish, rich girl named Hope.  I was riveted to my television set throughout the summer of 1983 anxiously awaiting my fix of “Like the sands through the hour glass so are the Days of Our Lives.”  As the school year approached, I panicked, wondering how I would survive not knowing if the hardened heart of Bo would be softened by love. Thankfully, my wonderful aunt (some of you may call her an enabler) agreed to tape the show for me and I would go to her house every Friday and watch 5 hours of young, tortured teenage love.  Then for my 15^th birthday, I saved all my birthday money and bought my first VCR. Unfortunately, my mother decided I needed a “romance addiction intervention” and she prayed over my VCR.  Tragedy struck and my VCR never worked again.  Slowly as the sands of time passed, my addiction slowly went into remission. Oh it would poke it’s ugly head every now and then, with the witty repertoire of Han Solo and Princess Leia, the daring exploits of Remington Steele and Laura Holt, but I would reign it in under firm control. That is until a friend lent me a little book about Edward Cullen and Bella Swan and the addiction came crashing back stronger than ever.  Oh, I've tried to fight it.  Attempting without success to bypass bookstores. Telling myself, “No more Dukes and Ladies in dire straits.  No more Knights and Damsels in distress.”  But I am just not strong enough.  As fate would have it, I ended up working with a wonderful author, Jessica Bell, who instead of helping me fight my romance addiction ended up making it stronger by letting me read her first Young Adult novel, Tainted.  I was immediately sucked into the gripping tale of courageous Jemma and gorgeous Gale as they fight for survival during a Zombie outbreak that threatens their lives and true love.  Because I am anxiously awaiting her sequel novel, called Sanctuary, I will offer that as my only excuse for what I am about to write....

You see, recently I saw the trailer for a movie about a young man who is changed forever when his eyes behold the most beautiful girl he has ever seen and his cold heart is brought back to life by the power of true love.  Oh and I should probably mention one little character flaw, hardly worth mentioning, he’s a zombie.  Please, that is not gross because he is not dead, just almost dead.

I dragged my husband to the movies with me last night to see Warm Bodies because much to my husbands dismay I just knew there was a message of love in there for me.  The movie starts off with R (cute zombie boy) wandering listless through the remains of an airport.  He describes himself as lonely, trapped, unable to connect or speak to others, and finally says, “I don’t want to be like this.”  He collects memorabilia and listens to music trying to regain what little humanity he has left.  Days blend into each other until a chance encounter with a girl named Julie.  When he sees her, he fights his instinct to kill and ends up rescuing her.  This impulse to save her awakens his dead heart. The more time he spends with her, the stronger his heart beats and his body begins to heal itself.  He realizes that he wants “more”, more life, more love, and more everything.  The zombies around him notice he’s changing and when they see R save Julie, their stone, dead hearts are filled with hope and slowly begin to revive. They start wanting “more” too.  R and Julie know that they have found a cure but they have to fight to prove it against the “Boney” who want to extinguish the hope that is resurrecting the near dead and even from the humans who refuse to believe in the healing power of love. 

My husband was a little “worried” that I was going to write about zombies but haven’t we all at one point in our lives felt like a zombie; going through the motions of life, listless, without passion, lonely, unable to connect, wanting “more”. We search everywhere for “more”: material possessions, relationships, drugs, video games, but when all those things begin to bore us we feel dead again.  R wants to change. He does not want to turn into a “Boney” which are skeleton zombies that have completely given up hope and have become walking corpses.

Recently, I wrote about how a few years ago I was walking around like a Christian zombie.  Wandering without purpose and spiritually dying but thankfully God breathed His love back into my life, renewing my spirit and heart. (Read my Testimony Part 1)

 2 Corinthians 4:16 (NIV)

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

 Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV)

And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.

When I got saved years ago, God gave me a new heart and He put His Spirit in me but like R, I have found myself wanting "more". Since the day I felt God's love in a tangible way in December, I crave more. I want an even closer relationship with God. My spirit longs to connect with His daily.

O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you.  My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy. I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night. Because you are my helper, I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings. I cling to you; your strong right hand holds me securely. Psalm 63:1-8 (NLT)

I never want to walk around like a zombie again. And even if like R, some people around me are starting to get a little uncomfortable with my “earnest search” for more, I am going to keep searching because I know that “His unfailing love is better than life itself”.

So as I look around; there are zombies all around me, people who are lost, alone, feeling hopeless, who desperately want to feel loved.  Wandering through life with no real destination but in their heart of hearts they know that they are missing out on something “more”.     

 For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes—so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them. But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. Matthew 13:15-16 (NLT)
 

God wants to heal them just like He healed me. He loves us beyond what we could possible comprehend. We don’t have to earn his love. He IS love and He can’t help but love us. 

We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first. 1 John 4:19 (MSG)

God has the zombie cure and it is LOVE.  He promises you a new heart. He will remove your cold, stone heart and He will replace it with a new living one. All you have to do is ask Him and He will give it to you freely.  Once you get your new heart, just like R, you will bring hope to those that are lost around you.  You will be reborn, with a new passion and joy for life.  You will "love and be loved". Now isn't that better than flowers and candy for Valentine's Day? 

Love,

Yolanda

PS:  Just a warning, Warm Bodies is not a Christian Film…not even close. It is PG-13 and obviously about zombies who are not vegetarian.  But, since I love a great love story….what can I say…..that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.