Wednesday, August 18, 2021

THE ZOMBIES CAN'T GET US

THE ZOMBIES CAN’T GET US

In the movie, “World War Z” the zombies are on the way and the hero of the movie tells the family, “People who keep moving, live.”

 

Movement is life. A while ago at work, I had to be standing in one position on a cement floor for 7 ½ hours. When I got home my back was stiff and sore. I did an exercise to stretch it but I had to do it four times before I heard that wonderful popping as the muscles stretched out.

 

When we feel like we’re on pause, or like we’re not really moving ahead with our life, we need to think about asking the Lord to help us to become more flexible and yield quickly to His urgings, without second-guessing ourselves. When the Pharisees got stuck in their ways, or even when Jesus’ disciples got stuck in their thinking, the Lord said they were slipping fast into hard-heartedness. We don’t want that. People need our love and our care, things we can’t give if we’re angry and ridged in our thinking.

 

Recently I’ve been exercising the ability to stay flexible mentally. When I got blocked from certain capabilities on Facebook, the first thing that popped into my head (after a brief dance with disappointment) was: “God will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19). I wasn’t going to give up on reaching people with my writing, but I knew I had to be compliant to the Holy Spirit, ready to go in a divergent direction if necessary.

 

At work, I may think I have the right answer, but I’ve learned that often others have even better ideas. My co-workers would tell you that they’ve heard me say many times, “I’ve got a lot of ideas, but I can’t say they’re always good ones.”

 

When we know that we’re doing God’s will, nothing can stop us, but we may have to be a little flexible in the execution. We can’t be making all kinds of our own rules about how we think things should be done all the time. I know we all get into comfortable routines, but putting stiff unbreakable rules on ourselves can lead to rigidity and unnecessary hard heartedness.

 

That’s what happened to the Pharisees. They knew it was God’s will to heal people but they also knew that they weren’t supposed to do any work on the Sabbath. They became overbearingly inflexible about not working on the Sabbath, to the point that when Jesus went to heal a man on the Sabbath, they were furious:

 

“And he [Jesus] entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.  And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.  And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, ‘Stand forth.’

 

“And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness [blindness] of their hearts, he saith unto the man, ‘Stretch forth thine hand’. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.

 

“And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.  But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea” (Mark 3:1-7).

 

Now I know none of us would want to be as ridiculous as the Pharisees, but at times we’ve sacrificed the greater blessing and gotten mad about having to change.

 

But we don’t want to lose sight of the bigger picture. When obstacles come up against the traditions we’ve set up, we want to let the Holy Spirit take us around some new bends in the stream. It may be more thrilling and more satisfying than we ever imagined.

 

Don’t get stuck in rigid rules. If we get brittle, we’ll break. Let’s be willing to go in a slightly different direction as the Holy Spirit opens new ways. The zombies will never be able to get us if we just keep moving with the Holy Spirit.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

Discover how the principles of the Bible still apply to our lives today. The compilation of these short, true stories addresses current issues in a Biblical way.  https://www.amazon.com/WINGS-Journey-Weekly-Workbook-Christian/dp/B0874LGZ34/ref=sr_1_1?crid=EZNJZZUP3KHG&dchild=1&keywords=wings+carolyn+molica&linkCode=ll2&linkId=db88efb13727dcb484eb29f5b1683284&qid=1590196402&sprefix=wings+carolyn+molica%2Caps%2C353&sr=8-1

 

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