Losing Touch

Have you lost touch with reality? Some people do.

Like the person wearing a T-shirt that said, “I live in my own world. But it’s OK—they know me here.” It made me smile because I used to inhabit my own world to escape from reality.

When I entered Junior High School I moved to a new town and lived with my grandparents for a year. That was the year I discovered Science Fiction.

The idea of space flight and traveling to other worlds fascinated me. Reading became a way to escape from the reality that I had no friends and my parents were far away.

Seventh grade is challenging by itself. But when your world is completely topsy-turvy seventh grade is almost impossible. As a result I lived to read.

I would get lost in a good book and explore worlds that didn’t exist anywhere except in my mind. But it seemed real to me. Plus, fictional people don’t mock you or leave you.

It was an alternate reality. Kind of like some religions.

“Now hold on just a minute! What kind of thing is that to say? Isn’t that insensitive?”

Perhaps. But not if it’s the truth. Because truth is real. And reality is our friend. Especially when it comes to religion.

The Bible says in the New Testament book of Romans, chapter one, that people “suppress the truth by their wickedness since what may be known about God is plain to them.” It adds that, “God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

Instead of pursing a relationship with God, people “turn aside to myths.” The Bible goes on to explain how, “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.”

When we suppress the truth and exchange the truth of God for a lie we lose touch with reality.

That’s why the Bible warns us to “Be on your guard.” “See to it,” God says, “that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”

It’s just too easy to lose touch with reality—especially when it comes to spiritual things.

We were all born into some spiritual tradition. But eventually we must stop blindly accepting what we were taught. We must question traditions, reject myths and verify the truth ourselves.

Each one of us must come to terms with faith and discover the reality of God. We must stop depending on our parents’ faith (or lack of it) and determine our own convictions.

Either we are alone in this universe or there is a God who exists and has revealed himself to us through his Word, the Bible. But you must discover the truth. Your eternal future is at stake.

What if it’s true that Jesus Christ died for our sin? That God spared not his own son but freely offered him on the cross for our sin so we could enjoy his blessings now and eternal life forever? That God will never leave us or forsake us? What if it is true?

I encourage you to get serious about your relationship with God. Pick up a Bible and read about Jesus in the New Testament Gospel of John. Ask God to show you the truth.

Reality is your friend. Pursue the truth. Live, not “as if” it were true, but because it IS true!

When you do, instead of losing touch with reality, you will get in touch with the God who is. You will find that the path to him goes straight to Jesus Christ, “the way, the truth and the life.”

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!