What Reality are You Living In?

In 2nd Corinthians 4, we see the need expressed to view this world and its issues, accurately, in the light of Scripture:
4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

In this age where we struggle to know and accept what is true, we need to be able to see with spiritual eyes, to develop discernment so that we appraise all things from a Biblical perspective.   There is plenty of information that is disseminated, but there is much that is just flat out not true.  And, if we are not grounded in God's truth, our view of reality becomes distorted, and we begin to live our lives based on principles that do not line up with His ways.   Incorporating God's Word into our thinking helps us to see more clearly, and we do not base our decisions on false information, but on the accurate standards of His truth.

The apostle Paul, in praying according to the will of God, wrote this in Ephesians chapter 1:
16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

I was reading the other night about the development of a video game character that is supposedly so real that the game's release was delayed so that her emotional makeup could be so complex and so compelling as she accompanies the player through a maze of challenges.   No wonder that video gaming becomes the new reality for a number of teens and young adults, and even older adults - some might say it's a more appealing alternative than real life for some of the players.

And, we craft a world for ourselves through the use of social media, developing "friends" on Facebook and living our lives through the posts that we compose and consume.   They're real posts, but are they real friendships?   And, does the life we portray really reflect reality?

Google is developing technology through its glasses that present an enhanced reality - when you put on the "Google glasses", you would be able to get additional information on the circumstances around you, and apparently you would be able to record audio and video using the glasses, a kind of mobile security camera, but what a great invasion of privacy.   PluggedIn reports that a Seattle business has already banned the use of these devices, even before they have been released.   TIME reports that the technology’s already perturbing lawmakers: the West Virginia legislature has introduced an amendment to an existing bill to establish “the offense of operating a motor vehicle using a wearable computer with a head-mounted display.”
Virtual reality - social reality - enhanced reality - these can all offer escapes for us and a distortion of life itself, when we really need a clear picture of reality.   As believers in Christ, an escape from the real world does not adequately or accurately equip us to deal with it.   Like never before, we need our senses trained to be able to process the information that we interface with daily, and to do so from a Christian worldview perspective.   When reality hits, it's not beneficial to immerse ourselves in some sort of virtual reality and escape the real issues.    God does equip us to deal with real life, and through discernment, we can respond in a Biblical manner to the challenges of this world, using the principles of God's world.    We bring the heavenly, the eternal, into the temporal world of the here and now - His ways are higher than ours, and more real that what we encounter with our senses here on earth.