Tuesday, 09 June 2009

• Really, Really Real

              I've been watching season 1 of Bleach lately, and it's spectacular. But... it's a little strange.

  Bleach has it's own world, with Ichigo who sees ghosts, soul reapers, awesome gadgets, the Soul Society, spiritual powers, Hollows, literally a whole world that so rich and well defined. More than that, it's an exciting, unique, if not dangerous, story world. In the past, after being privileged to see a world like that -- be it in book, movie, anime, or manga form -- I'd walk away after the end of the episode pining after that world. Sometimes, I'd just wish so bad that I could be in a world like. I place where life was exciting, supernatural, and spectacular, even if it was dangerous and hard.

              Lately, though, I don't get that desire anymore -- the feeling has changed. After the TV is off, and seat is vacated, I don't return to outside life with longing sighs and empty wishes anymore. A new thought goes through my head now: "What an awesome world I just got to see! ... but it's not real. More than that, out here, the real life I'm going back to is so much better than that."

              If I've learned anything recently, it's that people is fantasy worlds don't display nearly enough disbelief, doubt, and skepticism about the extraordinary things happening to them. Seriously, even when something directly, obviously, supernatural happens to you, the first thing you do is doubt it. Especially after its gone. It's human nature to deny that the outside of the box exists. "That didn't really happening." "I must be imagining things." "Am I going crazy?" "That can't have been, I mean seriously." That is just a sample of the hundreds of thought that try to convince you. And they often replay over and over again. You can't fully comprehend the sheer capacity for human doubt until you begin to encounter the extraordinary on a daily basis.

              But I'm rambling off topic now. I have to admit, I've looked through tons of stuff to find that life I wanted. Living a boring, mundane life is not acceptable for me. I tried spellcraft, I tried religions that promised vast mysteries, spiritworld, ect., I tried the believe-your-life-into-what-you-want-it-to-be, and none of that can compare to the life I am living now.

              Granted, I don't see spirits with nearly the frequency of Ichigo, but the world is so much bigger than that. Even the presence of God is surprising still. I mean, seriously, I'm a Christian, meeting up with God shouldn't surprise me. But every time He makes Himself known, I'm like: "Whoa! *insert jump and nervous laugh* Hello there, Lord of All Creation." Christianity isn't about believing there is a God -- as if He were some ethereal, distant spirit who we're never really sure of anyway.  Christianity is about knowing God. His existence isn't in question. It's an unshakable surety, because, well, how can you deny the existence of being Who's present right there in the room with you? How can you say God doesn't exist, when God is making profound changes in your life, and you're just sitting on the sidelines watching all this stuff happening? How can you deny a cause, when you clearly see the effect?

              Since God is real, do you realize the repercussions of that? Think about it. That means angels are real. Demons are real. They really exist, even though you don't always see them. Heaven really exists. An entirely different realm, populated by spirits and who knows what, really exists. The Red Sea really parted. God came down in the form of a man to visit earth -- for real -- teaching, healing, warning. And that man really came back to life after He was killed.

              Isn't that so cool? I mean, all that stuff is really, really real. A weird thing for a Christian to say, I know, but life under God does not follow social standards or expectations. More than that, those same forces are in my life, working, warring, changing in profound ways. Those forces have always been there; in the past, it was me who was the blind one

              Unlike Ichigo's world, this world I'm in is real. This stuff is real. This world is dangerous and it's a real danger. These powers are real and -- oh my goodness -- am I so small and weak compared to them. Change for the better is hard, often unpleasant, and brings a lot of tears but it too is also real.

              I read a quote recently that went along these lines. It was addressed to a person who refused to believe the virgin birth, the parting of the Red Sea, the resurrection, and the miracles of God because it went against science. It couldn't be proven, and it wasn't reasonably possible. But God didn't make life to be ordinary. Those miracles show that we are to expect the unexpected, to expect the extraordinary, to expect feats where the laws, logics, and normalcy are transcended for tremendous good. How boring would it be to live forever within the bounds of the possible, of the proven, of the fully tested, fully understood, and fully supported with evidence?        

              God never made life to be boring. It's often hard, it's often a struggle, its often painful, doubtful, confused, unsafe, and unsure; that's exactly why it is reality. Despite all that, life as God made it to be, is also more extraordinary than any fantasy this world can offer. Life, as God made it to be, is downright supernatural. 

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