Not everything that feels real is true.
I heard a radio prank call recently where the caller rang a women pretending to be her husband's boss. He called to let her know that they were forced to end his employment. The wife was understandably upset, arguing that he was a good man who worked hard to support his family, and that this was totally unfair. When the wife pressed the caller as to why her husband was being sacked, the pretend boss told her it was because they had caught him having sex with the secretary in his office. The wife responded with an outburst of fury at her husband and told the caller to tell him to collect his belongings from the lawn of their home, because their marriage was officially over. In an instant the wife's reality had totally changed. In her mind, she had changed from being in a loving, faithful relationship with a good man, to totally hating everything about him and ending their relationship on the spot.
The truth was very different from her reality. Her husband had actually done nothing wrong. Her feelings of hate and hurt were very real, yet they had nothing to do with truth. This sort of thing happens to us all the time. We also can be living out of a reality that is simply not true. “The Matrix” highlights this principal incredibly well. In the movie, everyone assumes that all they see and feel is totally real, yet they are being deceived and controlled by a clever system of lies that keeps the truth hidden from them.
Every day, people go about their lives with the assumption that if it feels real it must be true, yet sometimes we too live in a web of lies that we believe about ourselves and our world.
I spoke to someone recently who was convinced that they were worthless. She felt that others were important and valuable but she was of no value at all. This sad picture describing her reality was reinforced even by her family. Although her feelings are incredibly real and strong, they are based on lies not truth. She is an incredibly valuable person. The actual truth of her existence is still hidden from her. If only she could see what is true.
The same is true for you and I. We all live with the possibility that the story we tell ourselves is based on lies, or at least on something that is far less than the truth. It is possible that the actual truth of your existence, significance and happiness is still hidden from you and yet to be discovered. Just because we believe something is real doesn't change whether or not it is actually true. If you were to put aside all your well trained thought processes , ideas, insecurities, fears and hurts and seek what is really true about life, about God, about who you are and why you are here, you would never be the same again. The truth shall set you free!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
BEING A GOOD PERSON
If you want to try hard to be a good person and you do believe that God is real, don't let me tell you that's bad, but please don't call it Christianity. And please don't be lulled into the false sense of security often given at funerals that would lead you to feel confidently that being good is all that God requires of us.
I talk to so many people who assume that Christianity is simply about believing in God and trying to be a good person. All they feel Christianity offers, is what they've already taken – some sort of moral guideline about what's right and wrong in life, even though they seem to chuck it out it when ever it suits. It's kind of like the lifestyle equivalent of a mullet haircut - clean cut up front, but there is a party going on out the back.
Do we just need to believe that God exists, and that he's a good bloke for him to accept us? Does being a Christian have anything to do with the kind of person you are once you’ve decided that you believe the right things or can you go on living how you like? After all, doesn’t the bumper sticker say “Christians aren’t perfect just forgiven”
Does God offer some sort of legal transaction where he scans our brain to see if we believe in Him, and then if so, fills out some paper work, clears out some more space in the clouds and then sends out our prepaid ticket to heaven?
If all that mattered was working hard at being good, then most of us are, "OK with God"
right? Everyone knows 99% of people really are good folks trying hard to make the most of
their lives. It's only psychopaths and politicians that are really bad. If that were the case, Jesus could probably have saved himself a gruesome death and stayed in heaven while we carried on our merry way.
The point is that he did come, he was crucified and he now offers us everything we really need, yet as C.S. Lewis, the author of the Narnia series says
"We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
To be connected to God here and now will never happen by just being a good person and believing some stuff about God. You need what he did for you on the cross. If you believe the chair can hold your weight, then sit in it. If you really believe that God is real, then trust Him and open yourself to him. God invites you to allow him to be present and powerful in your world today. It’s what we need. It’s what He offers. It’s why he came.
I talk to so many people who assume that Christianity is simply about believing in God and trying to be a good person. All they feel Christianity offers, is what they've already taken – some sort of moral guideline about what's right and wrong in life, even though they seem to chuck it out it when ever it suits. It's kind of like the lifestyle equivalent of a mullet haircut - clean cut up front, but there is a party going on out the back.
Do we just need to believe that God exists, and that he's a good bloke for him to accept us? Does being a Christian have anything to do with the kind of person you are once you’ve decided that you believe the right things or can you go on living how you like? After all, doesn’t the bumper sticker say “Christians aren’t perfect just forgiven”
Does God offer some sort of legal transaction where he scans our brain to see if we believe in Him, and then if so, fills out some paper work, clears out some more space in the clouds and then sends out our prepaid ticket to heaven?
If all that mattered was working hard at being good, then most of us are, "OK with God"
right? Everyone knows 99% of people really are good folks trying hard to make the most of
their lives. It's only psychopaths and politicians that are really bad. If that were the case, Jesus could probably have saved himself a gruesome death and stayed in heaven while we carried on our merry way.
The point is that he did come, he was crucified and he now offers us everything we really need, yet as C.S. Lewis, the author of the Narnia series says
"We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
To be connected to God here and now will never happen by just being a good person and believing some stuff about God. You need what he did for you on the cross. If you believe the chair can hold your weight, then sit in it. If you really believe that God is real, then trust Him and open yourself to him. God invites you to allow him to be present and powerful in your world today. It’s what we need. It’s what He offers. It’s why he came.
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