Reality Check

Earlier this week I was talking with a group of young adults and in the course of conversation I explained that our fallen world can sometimes think of humanity as the epitome of all things.  Even Christians can subtley fall into this trap.  For example how would you decide what is right if stealing something to ease the suffering of another person seemed your only option?  God said stealing is wrong, but what about the person suffering?  If we hold humanity as the highest of all things, then the choice is easy--steal in order to alleviate the pain.  But, what about what God says?  We genuinely wrestle with this because we are fighting between two worldviews: one that says God is supreme and another that says humanity is supreme.

The idea that we are the highest expression of all that exists frightens us--even though many people believe this to be true.  Even our popular culture reflects this scary scenario for us to see.  Consider what the author Michael Frost, in his book Seeing God in the Ordinary says about the movie The Terminator: "Actually, I think we find deeply disturbing the thought that we humans are the highest form of reality. . .so distrubing is it that we hunger for experiences that remind us we are not the final authority, the ultimate being. . . .[in The Terminator] we see the struggle between the creature--the cyborg played by Arnie [Schwarzenegger]--and the creator--humankind.  What makes these films so exciting is the idea that it might just be possible for humans to create a robot or another machine that could outdo us, that could defeat us at our own game.  Deep down inside, we know that machines are created to do our bidding, to be subservient to us. . .[but] what if a machine--a creature--is greater than its creator?"

Somewhere deep inside many people is a gnawing fear: a fear that we might be the highest order of reality, and a fear that we might not be able to actually handle that responsibility!  We have such capabilities that we might be able to create something that actually initiates our own demise.

A sobering thought.

When seen in this context, it becomes starkly revealed that for a creature to become greater than its creator is a recipe for disaster indeed!

Maybe it's time for a reality check?

I think that the reality check we most desperately need is to find ourselves in the presence of an awesome God who helps us to realize who we really are--to find our "place".  Frost writes that this awe-encounter with God creates in us a "sense of majesty, God's unapproachability, a feeling of fascination--including both fear and attraction."  This is something that "can never be adequately described, only experienced--the feeling that we are important enough to be invited to encounter the Holy, but that in its presence we are overwhelmed and made aware of our smallness.  Such experiences of the transcendent are not only frightening; they are strangely comforting.  We need them."

We need them, and we need God.  That's our reality check.  Alone we get too big for our britches and we really don't know how to handle ourselves.  But with God we are able to understand who we really are.

Today, take the time to look up--just look up, and think about God, His magnitude, His majesty, His power. . . .then take a look at yourself.  You may get a glimpse of what reality is all about.

BT