Reality

In the reality that comes from above

God is good, there's no bigger love.

It's His reality that welcomes us back

Trust and obey, there is no other way

- The Newsboys

These last several days have given me a good opportunity to focus on reality. It must be something that is missing in my life, because the Lord is giving me many lessons in it.

On Saturday my husband and I drove to another city to see the Newsboys play. It was so fun. Michael Tate, formerly with DC Talk, is the new lead singer for the Newsboys. I never considered that they might play some old DC Talk songs, but they did! It was like high school/college all over again!

So, that put me on a Newsboys listening trip. I was listening to one of their albums with the song "Reality" whose lyrics I've quoted above. God's reality is so totally different from this world. In His plan, we are to trust and obey (I'm singing the hymn in my head). That is the True way to live, but in my flesh and in this world I am deluded into thinking that myself and my wants and my feelings are the true reality. Yuck! Thank God it's not!

On Sunday we saw a theatre version of C.S. Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters". It's one of my favorite Lewis books. Of course they can't condense the whole book into a 90-minute program, but I think they did a pretty good job. The gist of it is that a senior demon, Screwtape, is writing letters to a underling, Wormwood, giving him advice on how to keep his assigned human from (1) becoming a Christian and (2) being an effective, victorious Christian. At one point Screwtape gives the suggestion of keeping the human from really contemplating what reality is.

This is so vital! To know what true reality really is. If I numb myself to it by TV, books, Internet or even by things that I consider good, like doing projects are church, then I loose sight of God's plan for my life and I rob Him of His glory.

In week 9 of the Thin Within workbook #1 we are looking at 1 Corinthians 6.12:

Everything is permissible for me - but not everything is beneficial.

Everything is permissible for me - but I will not be mastered by anything.

I came to the realization that I am still very mastered by lies and inanimate objects. How crazy is it that the ice cream in my freezer has any power over me? The reality is that I give it power. How base is it that the values of the world have power over me? The reality is that I choose to believe lies.

I am taking a stand against believing lies. It's amazing how many of them are ingrained in me and swimming around in my head! I don't even know how much I have to unlearn! It's daunting, but I can never move forward until I come to the realization that I freely choose to believe lies. Only then can I choose to believe God's eternal truth instead.

I feel like I'm writing grandiose statements - I'm doing it on purpose so I can, at a later point, come back and see the gravity of the situation and my desperate need for freedom to believe the truth.

Thank you, God, for getting me to this point! I will choose to trust you to take me to the next!