DO YOU HAVE A ZOMBIE PLAN? (Meditation Monday--zombie post by popular demand)

My kids are now young adults. Gone are the Ninja Turtle and Little Mermaid movies. Now our shelves are stocked with everything sci fi and blow up. And the genre that nicely combines both is zombie.

I used to hate zombie movies. But perhaps through attrition—eyeballing the movies playing as I’m cooking dinner and not getting disgusted moving my vision between the raw hamburger and the zombie guts—for some reason I now enjoy the genre. It’s fun to cheer for the good guys. You know, the ones still living.

The joke among zombie enthusiasts is that you need to have “a zombie plan.” A plan to prepare for the eventuality when the living dead are out to get you. Having a zombie plan is nicely done in the cult classic take off, Sean of the Dead, where the protagonist, Sean, and his friends set out for the pub as their plan to stay safe from the body-eating zombies roaming the countryside. After all, everything you need is at the pub—electricity, beer and friends.

So yes, I have a zombie plan. It includes a collection of wind-up flashlights and I regularly cook up a batch of casseroles for the freezer. ‘Cause I gotta have something hot and cheesy to eat while those zombies are pounding on my door. And if it’s delicious enough, those zombies might even go for the casserole over juicy moi.

Yes, we laugh about our zombie plans and add wacky reasonings, whenever we can. “I need two bags of potato chips. One for now and one for my zombie plan.”

“Gotta get the large pack of toilet paper. That's not something you want to run out of when the zombies take over.”

I even buy shampoo by the gallon folks…

I hope you understand that I don’t have an actual zombie plan. Rather, I have a disaster plan for the possible occasion when—as Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings says—“the worst comes to the worst.” But, it’s oodles more fun to call it a “zombie plan.”

Because zombies are so much fun. We can laugh as we watch them limp down the street, moaning with outstretched arms. Actually, they look a lot like some people I went to college with the morning after a frat party.

I think the zombie genre is also popular for another reason. It addresses something all of us eventually face. Our mortality. And our desire to hang onto life as long as we can.  If you’re the “walking dead,” then you are a tiny bit close to conquering death, right?

Unfortunately, zombies are reanimated; they are not the dead returning to life.

That’s where Jesus comes in. Jesus died. Then he came back to life. Not as a zombie but as our savior. His actions of dying and being resurrected give us full assurance that, if we lean on Him, we have the hope of eternal life with him.

Otherwise folks, our best hope to cheat death is to become a zombie. And if that happens, then you have to face us people who are well prepared with wind-up flashlights, casseroles and shampoo.  You won't have a chance!

Having Jesus is the much better zombie plan. In fact, if you have Jesus, you don’t need no stinkin’ zombie plan.

PRAYER:  Heavenly Father, thank you for your plan. We don’t always understand it but we know it is good because you are good. Thank you for promising that we’ll spend eternal life with you, in a heavenly body. Meanwhile, help us live these earthly lives for you. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Zombie plans are really emergency preparedness plans. Do you have everything you need to make the best of bad situations in an emergency? What would be the most important part of your emergency plan?

(Helpful zombie tip: make sure your zombie plan includes a supply of Twinkies. True zombie movie enthusiasts know what I mean. The rest of you will have to watch Zombieland to find out why.)