Keeping It Real…
Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
In a world that is upside down, sideways and crazy mixed up… what is real? Is it just my perception or is what I think I know, reality?
Just when I think I know, I’m told, “No, No that’s not REALLY what you think it is.” You have to take in the motive/intention/perception/judgement. You have to make it what you want it to be, instead of what it LOOKS LIKE. I once was told I had “taken my brain out and put it on a shelf” because I believed something this other person could not believe.
So, who’s right? Who gets to decide? Who gets to tell the rest of us what our lying eyes really didn’t see? Who gets to change the truth with a new, more modern version of popular speak – another term for politically correct.
What is real?
According to the free dictionary on my laptop… Real is…
- actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact; not imagined or supposed:… Philosophy relating to something as it is, not merely as it may be described or distinguished.
- Reality, the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or may be thought to be.
So… not my imagination… not my opinion… not my belief. What sets real apart from these? I believe it is the unchangeableness at the core of the object… or the standard… or the principle… or the event. If the item’s core definition/description remains the same, whether I or anyone else tries to paint it as something different, it is definitively REAL. If it can be changed through the words used to describe it or classify it, the REALNESS of the item must be put in the category of yet to be determined as true or false.
Sickness is real, whether I want to be sick or not. The mind, though it is truly miraculous cannot, by itself, make sickening things go away or make them stay away. Nature effects life… and the Laws of Nature remain in place even when we temporarily find a way around them. Gravity has taken rocket scientists to find a way for us to experience life without its effects. However, gravity itself has never been changed.
The majority cannot make something real by declaring it so or by passing a law like the “knowledge” of our earth… The belief that the earth was flat never changed the REALITY and yet life was lived with this principle for generations. When the truth was discovered, earth wasn’t changed to round because it always was, AND the believers of the lie didn’t make their earth flat, no matter how mean and angry they professed their beliefs. For some, even after the PROOF is in, they continue to proclaim their beliefs and invent complex and bazaar reasons that their truth is the only truth. They think that by denying any and all evidence to the contrary to their truth, they have made or can make their own reality.
It is my opinion that this is exactly what is happening in our world today. So many of our population have declared themselves free of the unchangeable. There is nothing nor anyone who can dictate (prove) what is real. Reality is as flexible and malleable as my own imagination. The truth is as easy to color and change as my ability to shout louder than the other guy. There is no need to live peacefully in community because each of us is the author and creator of our own world… our own reality. However, each of us do have a need built inside for partnership. We have a need to be seen and have an effect on the world around us… another odd item that is unchangeable. We do gather together and separate ourselves into communities of like-mindedness. The problem is that it is becoming harder and harder to agree and the requirement is becoming TOTAL AGREEMENT.
I can’t agree with that…
So how do I recognize reality? How do I KNOW the truth?
There are so many voices that sometimes it sounds like a roar with no recognizable words. Sometimes I cannot tell the difference between reality and the worst case scenario my mind insists on scaring me with. And sometimes… even the truth is scary and incomprehensible. I can know the truth… and I want to… but not be able to “live” with it… I become as desperate as if I am drowning. I am not free, I am a slave to my desperation to SAVE MYSELF. I reach out to grab the nearest buoy which usually turns out to be someone else who appears to be swimming well (until of course he/she has to support my weight as well as their own and anyone else who has already “come onboard”). Should someone drown because of my insistence they should care for me, the world will give me all the anecdotal evidence and permission that I need to find my next lifesaver… and the next… and the next!
John 8:31-32 … “If you continue in My word, then your are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
The real freedom… the reality that never changes whether it is believed or not… the truth that makes us free is twofold…
THERE IS UNCHANGEABLE TRUTH… AND… HE IS GOD!
In order for the TRUTH to make me free to LIVE the reality that is today. I must know and depend on the Author and Creator of all that is real and all that is true. The ONE who is in complete control.
To know Him is to know peace beyond comprehension. I don’t have to understand reality (all that is happening), I have to leave it in His hands. If I have a task that is mine to do, I don’t have to be in control of every major &/or minor detail of the task to insure its outcome. I have to trust that He knows exactly what He is doing and it is GOOD.
For me to “Keep It Real”, I must know, with all the clarity and truth I can muster, who I am and who God is. I must discern the voices around me and the content of their message. I must always seek true REALITY… as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
It is my choice… I can seek my way and my thoughts which declare only those things that make me believe I am in control of my life.
Or I can seek the truth… John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
I do not call myself a counselor because I have very little, if any, authority to tell anyone what to do (although you must understand that I am somewhat opinionated). But I am an encourager and by the grace of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit I do receive Words of Wisdom which are given from Scripture to be applied to the various steps we are given to take in this earthly life. Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM
I encourage you to “Keep It Real”… or might I say… Be kept by the One who Is REAL!
Jeremiah 29:13 – 14 “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD
**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible