Am I dreaming?
Did I just wake up or did I just fall asleep? What life is reality?
I have been at home in the States for a week and I am resonating with
Neo, from the movie, The Matrix. Where he is pulled between two seeming
real worlds but one really is counterfeit – an allusion, or maybe closer a
deception, to what is really going on.
Neo learns that there is a dark force at work in reality, bent on
keeping humans oblivious by feeding them sensory imagines to create a false life.
I am trying to wrap my mind around how I can be in
Swaziland, Africa one day and the next wake up in my comfortable bed in the
United States. How can two
extremely different worlds exist so close in time? And how can I so easily just wake up in either or? Why is the world, my life, so different
when I am outside the United States?
There seems to be a different reality going on. Is one truer than the other? Is one
better? I think what I have been
gaining with my travels is perspective from where I come from. To be honest it is a bit scary.
There is numbness to God and his Spirit here. People medicate themselves with
counterfeit affections to escape the reality of their own brokenness and
brokenness of the world.
People can hid behind their television sets, internet browsing,
relationships, sports, beer, careers, 401ks, and whatever else they can use
from engaging the world. There is
a numbness, a dullness, a mediocracy, because few have open themselves up to
true brokenness where only God can come through. There is little need for God when we are so quick to stuff
ourselves full with worldly prostitutes.
Jesus was on to something when he called his disciples…he
said to give up EVERYTHING to follow him.
He didn’t want any counterfeit substitutions of God’s love and power to
get in the way of the disciples experiencing him. And when he sent his disciples out he told them to take
nothing, NOTHING. He required that
they abandoned everything, even their iPods. He knew that man’s natural instinct is to take care of
himself. But God wanted to take
care of his disciples; he wanted to come through for them. Like in the way a warrior comes through
in the heat of battle. Jesus
wanted the disciples to learn that God is really all they need; he wanted that
knowledge to come to understanding through experience.
We need to experience abandonment. Where we give up our worldly affections
for a chance, no not a chance, but an opportunity to depend on God. Are you tried of living a
mediocre life, where everything is a safe bet? Where everything is planed and the end is known before the
start has begun. Do you want to
experience a life Fully Alive that Jesus promised on this earth? Do you want to
lead a life of adventure and one worthy telling? I recommend you position yourself in a place that requires
dependence on the Lord. That
probably means you need to let go of some things. God is who he says he is…he will take care of you.
*Stay tuned for my next steps on the journey.
