{"id":623,"date":"2014-07-10T13:41:23","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T20:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/?p=623"},"modified":"2014-07-10T13:41:23","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T20:41:23","slug":"the-bram-stoker-school-of-counseling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/?p=623","title":{"rendered":"The Bram Stoker School of Counseling"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a reent post, \u201cWild Roses, Garlic, and Wooden Crosses,\u201d I remarked how in Stoker\u2019s Dracula<\/em> these natural things are important weapons against vampires.\u00a0 The more I meditate on this use of the natural to overcome evil, the more I realize that natural things can be effective weapons against real demons and can help cure psychic vampires.<\/p>\n

Literary biographies often talk about artists who battled their demons. If \u00a0like Virginia Woolf or Sylvia Plath they committed suicide, critics say their demons won. I know critics are using the term demon<\/em> metaphorically, but their use of the term points up how universally recognized the problem is\u2014even materialists see demons. Whether metaphorical or literal, there are demons that like vampires suck the life from us.<\/p>\n

I certainly believe in all the spiritual weapons God and His Word provides against the demonic, but I think we sometimes overlook the natural ones. For instance, I often find that wilderness\u2014the wild rose\u2014restores my soul in ways hours in prayer don\u2019t. A long hike in the woods with all our senses open to nature can draw out the poison of self-absorption. It takes us beyond the small confines (coffins?) of our own problems and concerns. If we add to this walk a worshipful heart, we drive away the demons. Vampires hate daylight, so spend their days in darkened rooms. The common light of the day is sometimes our best weapon against the demons that haunt our nights.<\/p>\n

If we take garlic as representative of good food and community, it is clear why garlic drives away vampires. Vampires are all about themselves\u2014never others. Sometimes I battle a problem alone all day long, but only gain the victory when I get busy serving others or simply fellowshipping. Tolkien understood this concept when he made food-loving hobbits heroes and named the first book The Fellowship of Ring<\/em>. We should recognize that church potlucks are kind of spiritual warfare (a martial art in which I am belted).<\/p>\n

Apart from the killing of vampires, wooden stakes are often associated with commitment. During the many years that Wayne and Mary Harmon managed the church camp at Kellogg\u2019s Springs, those making a decision to follow Christ wrote their name and date on a stake and then pounded it into a little \u201cstake garden.\u201d Recently I watched builders pound in stakes to mark where the foundation will be poured. Much of our spiritual health is founded on the commitments we have made to God, our spouses, our children, our calling, and our brothers and sisters in Christ. Any spiritual check-up should include a careful examination of all our commitments. It is interesting that Bram Stoker gives Dracula the ability to turn into a mist that can float away or pour itself into a room and then rematerialize to prey upon a victim. He literally became something hard to nail down. Sometimes we most effectively battle \u201cour demons\u201d by \u201cnailing down\u201d those areas of our life where we have been uncommitted and foggy.<\/p>\n

Anyone who has been in ministry long has encountered psychic vampires who seem to feed off the lives of others\u2014but have no life of their own. These poor folks are the black holes of counseling\u2014always receiving ministry but never getting better, always needing but never giving. Prayer, God\u2019s Word, inner healing, repentance, and forgiveness are all important. But sometimes these folks need the wild rose. They need to take up bird-watching, botany, painting or photography\u2014anything that forces them to see the world around them. Some of these folks need to be greeters at Walmart, go bowling with 7th<\/sup> graders, or go to more baseball games. They should have to eat garlicky food with a large Italian family that homeschools.<\/p>\n

Okay, we probably shouldn\u2019t drive wooden stakes into the hearts of the psychic vampires who seek our counsel, but some might be cured by driving their own stakes. Many need to stake out what they believe\u2014the truth upon which their foundation is poured. Many need the stability that simple commitments provide: a commitment to serve others in a specific way, a commitment to pursue a specific goal or a calling. Sometimes the commitment to do one\u2019s best at a job imparts spiritual health. Hard work, done as unto the Lord, can drive a stake into the heart of our depression and self-absorption. Next to the garlic, psychic vampires need to drive some stakes in the garden and string up some beans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a reent post, \u201cWild Roses, Garlic, and Wooden Crosses,\u201d I remarked how in Stoker\u2019s Dracula these natural things are important weapons against vampires.\u00a0 The more I meditate on this use of the natural to overcome evil, the more I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6y6Br-a3","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marksletters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/cropped-cropped-cropped-cropped-Teckla-Mark-Mill-Creek-Falls-June-2011-3123.jpg?fit=1000%2C287&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}