34/40 - The Zombies
I don’t really enjoy zombie movies and shows, but I love the point they make: the greatest threat actually comes from inside the house.
This is the quiet thesis behind every one of these stories - it appears that the problem is out there with the monsters when really it’s the living who do the worst damage. Panic, betrayal, backbiting, the slow unraveling of trust. It’s not the monster outside the gates that breaks the community apart. It’s the anxiety and selfishness inside.
We’d love to believe the greatest threats in our lives are always external. And per my previous post, there are plenty of times where we are deeply wounded by others. But we are not merely victims, we are also offenders. We are wounded, but we also wound. We are not merely at the mercy of our circumstances, but we are the common denominator in many of our heartbreaks.
The bad news: we’re responsible.
The good news: we’re response-able.
When we accept responsibility that the causation of most of our problems come from within our own house, we are able to actually do something about them.
As Andy Crouch puts it: “The people who flourish are not those who avoid responsibility, but those who embrace it. Responsibility is not a burden—it’s the pathway to meaning.”
And as much as toxic shame (“I am a mistake because I made a mistake”) might discourage us from stepping into the freedom of extreme ownership, the safety given to us in the Gospel to be fully known, yet fully loved, gives us the invitation of heart to return home (my next post).