Ultimate Reality

Years ago, I was in complete rebellion towards God. I spent several years in college consumed with parties, drugs and alcohol. At first these experiences were surreal and it felt as though I had escaped into another reality altogether. After a while it moved from what felt like a movie experience to a sort of super-reality. I felt as though I had been given a different perspective on life from the old one. Everything I saw was washed in newness as though I was a child again, seeing the world through fresh eyes where every experience was different and exciting.

For a time this continued and I even began to feel as though I had been shown some perspective on reality that was better than what I could normally see sober. I rationalized that being high was a way of stripping away the guise and seeing the world for what it truly was. I believed that I had been enlightened to the truth of the universe like never before.

Unfortunately this perspective became ordinary, and cold. What was once new and exciting had become little more than a shift in my vantage point on life. I was not witnessing some new reality through a heightened awareness, but the same old thing, only from a slightly different angle. As time wore on the similarities between the two perspectives became much more apparent. My new beautiful landscape had become dingy and grey, and for the first time it felt as though reality was staring back at me reflecting the real truth of what I had become.

In a twist of irony, just when I thought I had discovered some hidden truth in the world around me, reality dealt me a crushing defeat. Nothing was magical, nothing was different, nothing about the world had changed, and I was left with the sobering reality that there was no substance, no party, and no frivolous relationship that could change the world around me.

Enter Christ...

Through the glorious victory over sin in Christ Jesus, I now realize that ultimate reality is in knowing Christ, and serving Him. Jesus has shown me that there is a reality beyond that which I can see with my eyes, and feel with my hands. He has shown me that truth resides in the knowledge of a Holy God who became flesh that we might have triumph over the worldly lusts of the flesh. He is truth and His word is the only reality that matters. Christ is our rock of existence, and in the end all that will ever matter to us is our relationship with Him.

Through salvation in Christ Jesus we do not simply have some new perspective on reality, but reality itself, viewed from all angles simultaneously, beyond personal experience, across space and time to the heart of God in all His Glory forever. Amen.