“You don’t get to decide reality. You just get to enter it.”
That’s a phrase a friend of mine shared years ago, and it changed my life.
Reality is what is true. It’s true whether or not we believe it to be true, whether or not we want it to be true. It just is.
How We Respond to Reality
I think of this a lot, as I see people choosing the parts of our current reality they want to embrace. Not all of it-just what fits the picture we want to hold onto.
Some of us prefer optimism-let’s find the silver linings and look on the bright side. There’s a benefit to that, but not when it’s delusional. Not when it turns a blind eye on the plight of the less fortunate.
Some focus on the gravity of the situation, with just cause. We can’t look away from the reality of the pain this is causing so many, including ourselves. We can’t avoid the hard truths, but in doing so sometimes we miss the good that is happening.
Sometimes it’s not optimism or pessimism that keeps us from reality. It’s just willful ignorance. A stubborn refusal to name what is real. Like an athlete who says, “No, I’m good to play” when they are obviously injured.
This reality isn’t one that any of us would have chosen, but it what we have. We don’t get to decide if we want it, but we do have the opportunity to enter it with Jesus at our side.
My friend Iris recently said, “Jesus will not meet us in fantasyland. We meet Jesus at the foot of the cross in reality.”
Our current reality is rough.
Each morning I wake up and wonder if maybe this pandemic is a nightmare we can shake off.
We can’t.
So if we can’t shake it off, how do we enter it?
How Do We Enter Reality
We enter it honestly, confessionally. As with any trial, we are being stirred. This situation shows us where our idols are-where we hold too tightly to comfort, security, control, success, peace. So as we recognize them, we confess them. We agree with God about the hold they have on us.
We speak honestly about our emotions. So many are stirred in us in situations like this-anxiety, grief, anger, frustration, discouragement. God wants our unedited hearts. He can handle them. We speak the reality of how we feel, knowing that He will sift through it and bring us to His version of what is happening.
We don’t pretend that things are better than they are. Nor do we take God out of the equation and predict despair. We look suffering in the face and see God standing with us in it, holding us, comforting us. The more we are willing to enter suffering, the more we can minister to others in it.
We enter it knowing that while we are all in this together, we are experiencing different realities. For some, this has been a time to slow down. For others, there’s more work than ever. Some might find it’s a bit of a relief. Others wonder how they will make ends meet. When we don’t recognize the fact that our realities are not the same, we withhold compassion and understanding. But when we do see that others are experiencing this in a different way, we give them space and grace to be on their own journeys.
We enter it with Jesus. We meet Him at the foot of the cross in it, knowing that nothing about Him is changed by our circumstances. Nothing He has done for us is taken. We know that He sees all we are going through. He has compassion on us. His power and wisdom will carry each of us through the reality we are in. Nothing in this situation scares Him, derails Him, makes Him wonder what to do. Nothing about how we are going through it, whether we’re “doing well” or not, phases Him.
And because of Him, we enter it with faith, hope, and gratitude. We look around to see where He is at work and we celebrate it. In this reality, there is goodness, because God is here. Those of us who know Him ought to be the ones most able to walk it with hope, because we have an unshakeable foundation in the midst of the harshest realities.
When we stare in the face of reality and still praise God, how much more is He glorified? And how much more do we see that He is greater than any reality we encounter? He is God of anything we walk through.
Related posts:
