Zombies or Vampires or Human Beings?
Carol and I recently began a new phase of ministry. We are working with a great church in Pennsylvania as their Pastor of Mission and Ministry (part time). Covid is waning, I observe, and people are getting out and about again. As you have probably experienced for yourself, there is a new sense of urgency to make life count – to not get back into the rat race. How do we do it? How do we retain the new priorities we’ve chosen and not get sucked back into prioritizing the wrong things?
What were you before Covid? Were you a Zombie, a Vampire, or a Human Being? Zombies are people going through life numb to the wonder and excitement of living life as a loved child of God. Zombies aren’t really living – just like in the movies. Zombies mindlessly exist in a world they can’t enjoy or improve.
Vampires on the other hand exist only for themselves. They live off other people. Oh, they are aware of all around them and notice where potential benefits are ….to themselves only. Vampires don’t exist to help others any more than the “zombies” do, but these creatures are carelessly harmful. They suck the life out of others and use people for their own personal benefit. You know the type, right?
I prefer to be the last entry in the title: a Human Being. You might say, “Well we’re all human beings”, but I mean that I want to be a human being who lives the way a human being is designed to live. I don’t want to be a mindless-zombie or a narcissist-vampire. I want to truly live; and when this life is over, I want to look back over it or have others evaluate my life, which they do and will, and say, “That Dave Lewis really knew how to live life to the max. His life was worthwhile. I could learn something from the way he lived.” I really don’t have to have the accolades while I am here. I am not looking for others to praise me, but I do want to leave a legacy that others, who know me, can’t help but notice and want.
In the next several weeks, I will take our readers back into the Top Ten Relational Needs and put a different angle on the studies we do. I will ask simple questions about each need (acceptance, affection, appreciation, approval, attention, comfort, encouragement, respect, security, support).
The questions we’ll address will be related to the needs and sound like these:
Acceptance: Am I accepted by God and/by others/ by myself? Do I live as a person who is accepted and knows it? Do I truly believe I am accepted? How do I move from unaccepted to accepted?
Affection: Am I loved by God and by others and by myself? Do I live as a loved person who knows he/she is loved? Do I believe I am truly loved? How do I move from a person who doesn’t’ know or believe he/she is loved to become a person who knows it and lives it? The questions will track each week with one of the 10 needs.
You get the idea. I want these studies and stories to help each of us live loved and give God’s love freely … starting at home or with our closest relationships. You do realize, don’t you, that our greatest goals must agree with God’s greatest good for us, and that is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Simply put, as Christ followers, we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love others as ourselves. Growing in our walk with Christ means we love now more as He loves than before, and in the future, we will love even more closely to the way He does. That’s what real human beings do!