TRUTH v's REALITY

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!