Are you living in reality?

Sometimes I get this eerie feeling that a lot of people are being drawn into fantasy rather than reality. What I mean by this is that instead of facing true reality we would rather watch someone else’s life or a made up story or even play a character in another reality. More specifically, I think that the stories created by Hollywood seem to always captivate our minds rather than our own lives. Or perhaps we are on Facebook making our lives look better than they are as we peer into other people’s lives looking on with envy.  Or perhaps we are sucked into a video game where we are a mage or soldier in the infantry. All of these options seem to be prevalent in our American culture. Yet all of these options in some way get us away from our daily human interaction. All of these options seem to distract us as many of our lives crumble from secret sins or bad choices.  Maybe we dwell so much in fantasyland because we are frustrated and can’t figure out what to do with the problems we face. Maybe the reason many people allow themselves to be drawn away from real life is because they don’t want to face reality?

            I think that there are several options for why Americans are so obsessed with fantasy rather then reality:

1.     Many of us think our lives suck. We have chased material things. Tried to find joy in every area we think possible yet are never satisfied so we run to fantasy.

2.     Some of us have made and continue to make poor decisions. Whether we have burned bridges with those close to us or sinned so greatly we can’t face it.

3.     We don’t feel like our lives are adventurous enough. We think that our lives are boring so we run to more adventures.

4.     The let us escape from forming true deep relationships with others because relationships are hard and we often mess up.

All of these are symptoms of our hearts that are at unrest. As Augustine once said, “Our hearts are restless until they find rest in God.” God wants to give us wisdom to face our trials head on. If only we would read His Word. God wants to forgive us and give us restoration for our sin. If only we would confess and turn to Him. God wants to give us the power to overcome the sins we struggle with. If only we would believe that the Spirit that lives within believers is powerful enough. God wants us to stop seeking other things to satisfy our hearts. If we would just rest in Him. God wants us to have healthy relationships with others. If we would seek Him first then put others before ourselves. God wants to heal our brokenness. If we would just come to Him.

Many of those things mentioned at the beginning of this blog are not bad. They are sometimes neutral or good things. Yet when we let them consume our hearts and take us away from reality we often become deceived by lies, consumed by these things, and our hearts grow hard towards God. God wants our lives to be an adventure. He has placed each one of us where we are for a reason. Let us seek Him and His ways first. Then God will teach us how to rightly live in reality.

John 4:13-14 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”