MERE APPEARANCES
It's funny how we are invited to live in two realities and yet we spend most of our life focused only in the one that is fleeting. We live as if we are totally convinced that what we can see and feel is the real deal. I'm not sure if you have noticed, but much of what we can see and feel is a real disappointment...it's far inferior to the reality we are called to live, move and have our being in. Most of us have it upside down! We are convinced that we are a mere 'Physical Being', who sometimes has a spiritual experience such as a Sunday morning worship service. Yet the reality lying clearly before our eyes is that we are a 'Spiritual Being' having a mere physical experience.
Let that sink in! We live in the tension between the 'greater' and the 'lesser' reality. Even Jesus seemed to remind Himself of this while He too walked out His physical experience on planet earth. In the book of John, as Jesus is headed to the cross and telling the disciples of what was about to take place He told them a time was coming when fear would drive them each into their own homes. "You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for My Father is with me." (John 16:32). The "lesser reality" was He would be abandoned by his friends and left all alone in the moment of His greatest need. But the "greater reality" was that He would never be alone because the Father was with Him.
Many times we are overwhelmed by the facts of our situation rather than the truth. One of the definitions for "truth" in the New Testament in relation to facts is it "denotes the reality clearly lying before our eyes as opposed to a mere appearance, without reality." Do yourself a great favor and read that last sentence again. Truth is there is a lesser reality that only has a mere appearance...and then there is the greater reality and if we are looking with our spiritual eyes we will find it is lying clearly before us. Jesus' lesser reality was his friends would leave Him high and dry in His greatest crisis...but that was only a mere appearance. The greater reality was His Father never left His side.
We will have the experience and the joy of the reality we choose to focus on. If we remember that we are a 'Spiritual Being' have a physical experience we will look at our life using our spiritual eyes...and that will make all the difference!
"...he persevered because he saw him who is invisible." (Hebrews 11:27)
