My thanks to Andy who gave me two new Donald Miller books for Christmas. I waded into "Searching For God Knows What" last night and came away with the following lesson, "Reality is like wine. Children don't appreciate it." The rest of the first chapter expresses Miller's attempts to write a story about Christianity and looking for a formula and discovering that there is no formula to reality. That's the gist of it, anyway - I was starting to feel that Triptofan buzz when I read it.
My mind travels down strange paths. It always has. But for the longest time, I've known that my body can not travel where my mind goes. Reality and fantasy have become two very real worlds for me. I like to live in the latter, even while forced to live in the former. Most of who I am, most of what I want to be, is in the fantasy world. I've often felt that there ought to be a way to make the two worlds one.
"Harry Potter suceeds because it is a case of wish fulfillment," said a recent critic of the best selling books on the planet. But I really wonder, how much of that is true? You read Harry Potter, and maybe it brings you joy and pleasure for a few hours, or if you're a slow reader like me, a few days, but eventually you have to return to the world of reality. At most, you are only a visitor - and an unwanted guest at that.
But how much more so is that the case of The Bible? On its surface, it is a story of a man who claims to be the son of the one holy ruler of everything - a being so powerful as to be omnipotent - who comes to Earth to save us all from Satan's power, when we have gone astray... Oh, Tidings of Comfort and Joy... Oops, sorry, still in Christmas mode. I mean the Jews had been wishing for a Messiah all their lives, and voila, there He was. Wish fulfillment, right? Now here was a Messiah who could heal the sick, feed the hungry, toss out demons, give sight to the poor, and asked nothing in return except faith. The son of a God who had liberated his people from the all powerful Egypt by sending plagues on Pharoah and drowning his army in the parted Red Sea had come for us. Total wish fulfillment. Snap his fingers, if he wanted, and you could have anything your heart desired.
Only, of course, there was a snag. Harry has to face death and dismemberment every year. God's people don't believe in him no matter what he does. Jesus had to die on a cross in order for us to be saved. Hardly what I'd call wish fulfillment.
It seems that even wish fulfillment can not escape the adult pleasures of reality. It seems that those who seek fantasy and have some measure of success attaining it, only delay the arrival of reality. We all want the fantasy. None of us want the reality attached to it.
I write because I want to live in a fantasy world. But as a writer I am cognizant of one important rule about every story - it has a beginning, middle, and an end. The fantasy world stops and the real world returns. Wish fulfillment is just an escape. But it is an important escape because it shows us, however briefly, the kind of world we want to live in - the kind of reality we want to experience. Whether it be casting spells with our friends or living in community with Jesus, it will always remain a fantasy until we make it a reality.
If fantasy is great, and reality sucks, then I want to make my reality more like my fantasy. And that is why you can not abandon fantasy and experience only reality. Without fantasy, reality has no direction.
2 comments:
I have no problem with the question you asked on Andy's post... I just have a problem with the answer ;) But my love life, or lack thereof, is a subject for a completely different post. If God could give Abraham children at his advanced age, then surely, if its meant to be, God will find a wife for me. There must be one out there somewhere - but perhaps that is just a case of wish fulfillment ;)
I don't know. Donald Miller just gets into my head. I read the second chapter last night and I need to contemplate it before making a new blog.
Donald Miller does that to a person - he smacks you upside the head, and you go "Duh! That makes perfect sense!" He makes you rethink your faith, and helps you understand where you are in your faith journey.
Reading the Bible is like reading a fantasy story - you have heroes and villains, military battles, miracles and magic, death, life, and every sin imaginable is described in explicit detail. You read into the story, put yourself in the shoes of the participants, and you quickly realize that each of us is part of that story, that the story, while fantastic, is a part of our reality, for our reality contains heroes, villains, battles, miracles, magic, death, life and every sin imaginable.
Reality can be hard, but we can certainly mold it to fit what we want it to be. Therein lies a choice!
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