Mirror, Mirror, Tell Me Your Lies!

***This is one of a few posts that were originally posed on the "I've Died Daily" website.  Now that that website is no more, I have re-posted it here.***

Blindness, illusions, misconceptions, false representations… Seek the Architect!

I began reading the Bible daily with my accountability partner January 1^st.  We began in Genesis and have been feasting on the word daily. 

In an effort to keep each other accountable to reading a minimum of 1 chapter a day, we are discussing each chapter and wrestling with the wisdom we’ve gleaned.  This has been a huge blessing.  It keeps me reading the Bible daily, I spend time meditating on the word, and I have someone to talk about Biblical truths with.  It’s also been great getting reacquainted with the patriarchs of Israel, and be reminded that they too were only human.  I really started seeing how the Word applies to life and how much I’ve been missing out on its sustenance. 

Well, this blog entry is mainly because of a statement my accountability partner (You can check out his simple, yet powerful website here http://www.heprayed.com/) made in response to a passage in Exodus.  He said,

“This earth here isn't reality - it's more like the Matrix!  There's so much spiritual activity - battles, victories, struggles, etc going on behind the scenes.  We don't enter into true reality until we've been released from this world into the presence of our God and we're not "seeing as through a blurry mirror" anymore.  (1 Cor 13:12)” 

HOW VERY TRUE!  If you don’t know what “The Matrix” is, aside from possibly living under a rock, you missed one of the better (not best) sci-fi/action flicks from my generation (I personally think Equilibrium was a better movie, but more on that some other time).  In the Matrix, Neo feels like something is just different about the world and when given a chance at reality, knowing it will change everything, he takes the RED PILL. 

Quick tangent!

There are a TON of parallels in this move that ‘mirror’ Biblical truths, but that alone is a blog in itself (and had probably been done 100 times over by now).  There is one parallel I need to draw simply cause I mentioned it; Neo takes the red pill, is ‘born again’ into a new reality, and finally sees the truth.  We accept Jesus as our Lord, are washed in His blood, and are born again to a new life where we walk in truth.

Okay, back on topic!

I don’t think we can fathom just how distorted our “reality” truly is.  For one thing, we didn’t know the reality of the Garden of Eden, and we didn’t experience the joy of walking with the Lord in the cool of the day.  That is a reality we will never fully grasp until we are finally home.  For Adam and Eve, they experience the glory of God and they fully understood what they lost by eating of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6-10).  For those who don’t know Jesus, they are stuck in the same toils that Adam knew (Genesis 3:17-19).  For us who do know Jesus, we are blessed by the truth that we are nothing but sojourners in this world and should seek to be heavenly minded (1 Peter 1:17-21).

We are trapped by our inability to see.  We are incapable of seeing the things that go on in the spiritual realm, and we rarely comprehend the gravity of what it meant for Jesus to die for OUR SINS.  Our whole reality is a blurry mirror.  So you will know, the title of this blog is a line from the song “Perseverance” by the band A Plea For Purging.  I realize the line in their song was probably not intended to be used in this manner, but I thought it fitting considering the nature of this blog.

So I leave you with this thought; don’t be conformed to what the world tells you to be and don’t let what other people think of you shape who you are.  Live a life that is worthy of the price Jesus paid.  Find your worth in Jesus and strive to see Him reflected back when you look in the mirror.

James 1:22-25 (ESV) - But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Wake up Neo, the Matrix has you.

God bless and keep the faith!

Chris