A New Reality
Last night I had several dreams. The first began in a room and in it I looked out into the hallway. I didn’t know the room, but I knew the hallway. It was the hallway from the house I grew up in. I dream about that house, or a semblance of it frequently, and it occurred to me when I woke up this morning that it was a foundational reality, a template, for my understanding of the world.
We all have these proto-realities, these templates for understanding the world. They can be good (like a great elementary school experience) or bad (like an abusive, adulterous, or alcoholic father). But, since they are our first understanding of a given reality, they become of standard for ‘truth’ in that situation. All ‘homes’ should remind us of our childhood home in order to feel like a ‘home’. All ‘loves’ should recall our first ‘love’. All ‘fathers’ are either loving or untrustworthy based on our experience of ‘father.’ The problem arises in that our first experiences, our templates, are so often flawed, or even harmful.
The Bible says, “The first to plead his case seems right, until another comes and examines him.” (Proverb 18:17) The first reality we learn becomes our basis for understanding reality. The question is, do we blindly follow the template or do we recognize that second witness when it comes and make a choice between them?
Our proto-reality is based on the human condition of living in a fallen world. It has its problems, we all know the world is far from perfect, but it seems true to us as a standard for what to expect out of life. Yet, Jesus comes into the picture as a new sort of person. He claims, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6) He proclaims, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)
In Jesus, God is inviting us to redefine our reality. Surely, honesty is better than dishonesty, and doesn’t carry its burdens of remembering which lies you told which people, etc. But, at a deeper level, John 8:32 is about defining our world as God defines it. God, who is in the unique position of having created reality, knows the true definitions for that reality. Whatever situation we face, He knows which witness is true and invites us to be healed from our first impression and experience life as it was designed to be. Not only that, He invites us to experience and know the Creator of that life.
So, in Jesus, we have the examiner of our first experience. And, in Jesus, we have the ability to choose between the testimony of our prior experience of reality and the testimony of the Creator of reality (i.e. as we see in Scripture). We have the opportunity to build on a new foundation. “For in Scripture it says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’" (1 Peter 2:6)
We all have these proto-realities, these templates for understanding the world. They can be good (like a great elementary school experience) or bad (like an abusive, adulterous, or alcoholic father). But, since they are our first understanding of a given reality, they become of standard for ‘truth’ in that situation. All ‘homes’ should remind us of our childhood home in order to feel like a ‘home’. All ‘loves’ should recall our first ‘love’. All ‘fathers’ are either loving or untrustworthy based on our experience of ‘father.’ The problem arises in that our first experiences, our templates, are so often flawed, or even harmful.
The Bible says, “The first to plead his case seems right, until another comes and examines him.” (Proverb 18:17) The first reality we learn becomes our basis for understanding reality. The question is, do we blindly follow the template or do we recognize that second witness when it comes and make a choice between them?
Our proto-reality is based on the human condition of living in a fallen world. It has its problems, we all know the world is far from perfect, but it seems true to us as a standard for what to expect out of life. Yet, Jesus comes into the picture as a new sort of person. He claims, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6) He proclaims, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)
In Jesus, God is inviting us to redefine our reality. Surely, honesty is better than dishonesty, and doesn’t carry its burdens of remembering which lies you told which people, etc. But, at a deeper level, John 8:32 is about defining our world as God defines it. God, who is in the unique position of having created reality, knows the true definitions for that reality. Whatever situation we face, He knows which witness is true and invites us to be healed from our first impression and experience life as it was designed to be. Not only that, He invites us to experience and know the Creator of that life.
So, in Jesus, we have the examiner of our first experience. And, in Jesus, we have the ability to choose between the testimony of our prior experience of reality and the testimony of the Creator of reality (i.e. as we see in Scripture). We have the opportunity to build on a new foundation. “For in Scripture it says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’" (1 Peter 2:6)
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