The Walking Dead

Hey Everybody,

I know I've emailed already this week but sometimes I just have to get things out of my head and onto the computer screen.

As I told you all a couple of weeks ago I’ve been reading the Walking Dead comic series lately. With the addition of its transformation into a TV series on some channel that I do not get, its mass appeal is overwhelmingly evident. The more I read the more I understand that it is a outgrowth of the relativity of all things that we have been teaching our children for the last 50 years. The books read like a lesson in values clarification.

In volume three there was hope that the rule of law was going to be implemented but circumstances clarified the situation and now the law man has become lawless as the situation of life dictates how we should really live. Sexual immorality is now a given. It has been throughout the story but now it has been justified because of the times that we live in. “We might not have long to live so go ahead and sleep with anyone.” Whatever gets you through the night is alright. There was a line that caught my eye (I am reading not listening) when the so called religious man said something like; “in this times we have to sin to do good” or some such nonsense.
Murder, sexual promiscuity, lying, hatred, acknowledgment that a god exists but that he is too impotent to do anything these are the things that trample over my sense of being as I read the books. Why do I keep reading them? Because they are well written. Because they grab your attention. Because they make you think about what you would do in hard times –hard times that probably are going to come (not zombies but perhaps something worse – hordes of the living killing anything in their path.)

How are we going to chose to live when all semblance of order is taken away? Since most people both Christian and non have no sense of the true nature of law then I would have to say that these books are probably rather accurate in how things, at least initially, would probably turn out. It would be the existentialists dream come true. No rules just right. Murder if you need to murder for the good of the group. Sleep with who ever you want to because life is too short for consequences.

As I think about these things I wonder how deep my commitment to the law of God really is. And in saying that I am asking an even deeper question: How deep is my commitment to the God of law? How would I live in a world gone mad? Well, how am I doing it now? How easily distracted am I from staying on the path of life? How quickly will I do wrong in order to further my idea of right? These are the questions that we ignore every day because sans the zombies this is the world we live in.

It is a world that makes each of us ask how am I going to take care of me while at the same time ignoring the deeper underlying question of do I trust God enough to let him take care of me even when it seems like he can’t or won’t?

Will I obey the command to not murder when someone is trying to take away everything I need to survive? Am I willing to murder in order to get what I need to survive? These are the questions that are not being asked because they don’t fit in with the nature of reality as we see it.

But the world is not the way we see it. The world is not a series of meaningless, random events. The world is not about the survival of the fittest. The world is not about the strong surviving by crushing the weak. Morals are not an addendum that a comfortable society puts into place to stay comfortable.

They are life or at least the path that the living must stay on in order to stay alive. It is on my list of things to do to write a work at least as compelling as Walking Dead that shows the reality of immorality in God’s world. I don’t know how yet and I am imagining that the sales would probably go through the roof (10 copies sold and 100 given away like usual) but somebody has to shine a light in the midst of a dark world and a dark church that hates the path of life and loves the road to destruction.

At times I feel overwhelmed by the darkness. How can me walking in righteousness stand a chance against the deep darkness of church and state? How has it done so throughout the ages? When, shortly after the beginning, Cain killed Abel, why not just give up and forget having kids altogether? It’s a dog eat dog world who would want to raise a kid in that kind of a mess? And yet Seth was born and because of that some 4000 years later the king of kings and lord of Lords is enthroned on high ruling and reigning with righteous law until every knee bows in submission and all his enemies are destroyed and made his footstool.

Righteousness (which contrary to popular ignorance is nothing more than obedience to the law of God) will conquer all opposition, light will vanquish the darkness, the good guy wins in the end because of goodness not because of might.

In the words of Stevie Wonder: Heaven help us all.

Grace and Peace that lead to righteousness,

Brad