What is real?

“Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!”. The words of Truman Burbank played over and over in my head like the tune from a passing ice cream van! However, it wasn’t these words that were really the cause of my contemplative state, but rather the reality of what I’d experienced while watching the Truman Show a couple of hours earlier! To watch a man live a life in a world he thought to be real, yet completely oblivious to the true reality that he was in, stirred something in me! From the outset of the movie, one is longing for Truman to discover the truth about his current reality, and as a result escape the staged world he is living in. This sense is underlined by the reaction of the millions of viewers as Truman steps through the door in the sky in the closing scenes of the movie as he turns to the camera and uses the very words that were still echoing in my head.

What is real? Once again, I ask a question which has been asked since the dawn of time. Wikipedia puts it this way – “Reality, in everyday usage, means "the state of things as they actually exist". In a sense it is what is real.” My understanding of this is simply, reality is what actually is, irrespective of any subjective view, perception, perspective, position, opinion or belief. I have often used the example of an ostrich burying it’s head in the sand between 2 steel tracks. Whether the ostrich knows about it, or believes it or not, does not change the reality that the coming train will provide passengers at the next station with some fresh, but flattened, unsalted, ostrich biltong. What is real is certainly not defined by what is visible, unless you really want to take a step off a 10 story building and see what happens. However, in each of these examples, the reality of the situation is proven by the result of the reality that existed when put to the test! The problem is that not all realities or truths out there are as blatantly obvious as the results of jumping off of a building. So much of what we claim to be real, is based on the perception or presupposed position on how we view that thing. For the better part of Truman’s life, he had no clue whatsoever that there was anything more than the life he had always assumed to be real, and for him, this was his reality. We, however, know that his reality was far from the real life that every other human being was living.

I still had two questions ever begging for an answer in the back of my mind – What was I missing? And what is real? (See end of post – ‘Anybody out there?') As I began to think about it, it slowly dawned on me that these 2 questions might well yield the same answer! The problem was that I didn’t have a clue where to start! What are the chances of suddenly finding something you’ve missed completely for 30 years! The answer would not be found anywhere obvious. I had to start looking below the surface if I wanted any success in my search. What was I missing? What is real? Well, at first glance, it seemed that my life on planet earth was pretty real. I was a human being, with parents, family and friends. I had been brought up with a belief and a faith in the God of Christianity. I had gone to church and tried my utmost to pursue God in the context of who I was and where I was at! At church, I was exposed to much teaching on the truth about God, man and the relationship which was supposed to exist between them. Yet somehow, all this truth was not helping. Was it then really the truth? Or was it only half truth? Or not truth at all? I certainly didn’t believe that it was untruth, and so I could only conclude that there must be more to these truths that I yet had to see. However, it felt like there just wasn’t enough scope for new truth in my current world view!

This realization brought me to a place where I had to re-examine the way I’d gained my current world view. So I started at the beginning. I had been born into a white, intelligent, middle-class family... Hang on a second, in the context of the rest of the world, could we really call ourselves middle-class? According to wealth statistics, we fell in the top 1% of the global population. Carrying on… I grew up for the first few years of my life at home with my mother as a full time mom! I then went to school at the age of 6. Being relatively bright, I did fairly well academically, without too much effort. I played sport and did all the things that kids usually do when growing up! When I finished school, the next consideration was what I would study and which direction I would choose as a career. Now in this particular case, my life took a turn away from the popular trend and I decided not to study. I started working shortly after school, and have worked ever since! So taking a step back and relooking at this account of my life, I could see nothing wrong with it, it was pretty average, nothing out of the norm.

The words had barely crossed my mind when it hit me between the eyes! I had just used the word ‘norm’ – meaning normal! I was perfectly right, my life had been perfectly normal, and it was exactly this fact that jolted me! Who says that what I’d always just assumed to be the normal, right way of doing things was necessarily the correct way?

As I began to consider this possibility, I realized that my entire life had been built on a foundation of certain presuppositions. In the western culture that I was brought up in, my life was automatically governed by order, time, information, the need to expand one’s mind, rationalized thinking and logic. I had never given any one of these presupposed realities a second thought, but could it be that some of them were not necessarily as important as I’d always believed? Could it be that because of some of these, my entire ability to experience God could be affected? Bringing God into this picture forced me to take yet another step back.

The concept of eternity was not new to me at all. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God was an eternal, spirit being, and that being created in His image, we too as humans, were eternal, spirit beings. We were put on planet earth for a very short period of time in the context of eternity, to find God, live in the fullness He had for us here, and then move on and join Him in eternity! This realization alone is enough to make one see the seeming insignificance of so much that we waste our time with. All that really holds any value ultimately, is what we can take beyond this life. And yet, even with this revelation, it lacked the power in me to make much difference in the way I was living my life.

In the context of eternity, I now had to take another look at some of these fundamental values that I’d based my entire life on. If God was spirit, and I was made up of body, soul and spirit, why was it that absolutely nothing in these presupposed views, other than a possible recognition of our need for God, included the development or even acknowledgement of the spirit component of who we are. Why not? After all, that’s the part that lives beyond this life!

Suddenly it started making sense. All my life, my entire experience of God and my efforts to relate to Him, had been, without even knowing, through the filters of these very fundamental issues which had governed my life, my way of thinking and my world view. I realized that God is spirit, and He wants us to ‘worship Him in Spirit and in truth’. Sure I knew I was a spirit being, but was I really that aware of the spirit within me? And being spirit filled, was I really that aware of His Spirit in me? Or was I interpreting even my experience of His infilling through my reasoning, through my intellect?

And so once again I was left with more questions than answers, but I was getting closer. Something in me needed to get a better understanding firstly, of who God is, and secondly, who I really am – not how I perceive myself, but how He perceives me!

One thing more thing can be said about Truman and that is that he was utterly determined to find the truth, nothing could stop him! And at this point in my life, nothing was going to stop me either! So all I have left to say is, “Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!”