Recently I asked God a question. Why am I so drawn into books? I love to read. And I can read almost anything and gain enjoyment out of it. Historical Fiction. Mystery. Magical Realism. Science Fiction. Even non-fiction. But the genre that draws me in most completely, the up-till-3 am-to-finish-just-one-more-chapter type of book, is fantasy. (I prefer the ones found in the children's section in the library no sex and more dragons.) Why, God, am I so drawn into the unreal?
I think this is an epidemic in our culture. To allow the unreal to rule our lives. To seek to live in fantasy. I have seen it and it is a lie of Satan. How easily we are deceived when the reality of life is so much more amazing than any book or movie or fantasy could ever be. Our hearts are longing for the story they were created to be a part of and we are pacifying them with cheep imitations.
This morning God answered me. Let's just sit there for a moment. God answered me. How amazing is my God! I know if I am sincere in the asking and patient in the waiting He will answer! I love Him!
The answer was tucked away in Colossians 2:2b, "I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God's mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. In Him lie hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge." At first glance this verse doesn't seem to answer my question but let me share with you what God told me.
Beth Moore says it the best, "Something in each of us just loves a relationship that is both secure and mysterious all at the same time." The best written books follow this recipe, but they are only following an earlier model - one from before the creation of the world. I love fantasy because it warmly embraces the mysterious. I love fantasy because it mimics God's relationship with me. He is both mysterious and secure. I can easily loose myself in a fantasy; God wants me to find myself in His reality where I am both the damsel in distress miraculously saved by the hero and the heroine at his side journeying to free others.
I am hardwired to desire that type of relationship, that type of story. I think we all are. And God is mysterious, I can never know this side of heaven all there is to know of Him. But God is secure, I have no shadow of a doubt who He is and what He has done for me. He loves me despite all my flaws. He saved me, choose me from before the creation of the world. He is my Hero.
What is more amazing is the promise found several verses later. The promise of what will happen when we live in God's reality. The real story. "Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness." (verse 7) When I choose to lose myself in the only Reality from before the beginning of all time my faith grows strong in TRUTH and I will overflow with thankfulness. WOW!
That is the reality I choose. The fantastic story I am a part of!
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