I
know of course for reality to be what it is, there can only be one –
but everyone has their own perspective of it, our knowledge of it is
limited to what we have discovered, disagreements arise from
uncertainty about things we thought we knew. On top of this, many
perspectives compete to occupy the position of truth in our minds. It
can drive us crazy, even make us panic. In the end, we often decide
simply to stick with what we know – to believe our biggest reality,
the one which in our eyes is the largest, to which all other
realities must give precedence – whether we love it, or merely
resign to it.
What
is your biggest reality?
It
could be something as big as a national or religious view, it could
be small like the simple things in life we enjoy. It could be a
place, a person, a thing. It could be an activity you have devoted
your life to, in which you find meaning and validation. It could be
whatever makes you happy, or whatever gives you the thrills you seek.
It could be a harsh truth that you have come to accept is just part
of existence. All examples aside, every individual comes to the
conclusion eventually that for them one truth at least outshines all
the rest – even the conclusion there is no truth except what you're
feeling at any given time.
What
do you do with the smaller realities?
You
subjugate them to the biggest. If you fail to you are forced to make
modifications to your views, or stick to the hope that there is an
answer you have just not uncovered yet, which could be the case
sometimes, though not always.
What
is my biggest reality?
It
was a conclusion I had wanted to reach in the past, and did hold to,
but still with some doubts and anxieties, even misgivings. The size
of my competing realities flickered, like multiple balloons slowly
deflating, with one pump switching between them. After many years,
however, the conviction that Jesus rose from the dead became the
largest, overarching all others.
It
was not the first largest though. The first largest was not a
positive, but a negative. While many people seemed to be okay with
goofing off and enjoying life while ignoring or accepting the fact
that death would sooner or later end them, I couldn't swallow that.
Therefore instead of embracing the reality that was directly in front
of me, though I was tempted to more than once out of despair, I
sought after the echoes of the voice that called out to me from the
ancient past. Others had done the same, and undergone astounding
changes in their beliefs – but I had always been afraid they were
just dumb or had missed something.
Their conclusions, however, made
sense to me, and since no one can say with certainty that such a
thing is impossible, since we can't disprove God's existence and
therefore the possibility of him bringing about a miracle that
deviated from the normal conventions of the natural world, I was open
to accepting their explanation, to my eyes the only sensible one, of
the historical events composing this earth-shattering anomaly. The
sources I refer to are various and many, but I think this article
sums up the case very well.
So
what of the personal feelings?
There
are many who want to believe in a compassionate God, but when they
read about the acts of judgment the God of the Old Testament was
responsible for, such as the conquest of Canaan, they conclude this
is not the one they should accept. They then mistakenly assume that
all who believe in him are either bloodthirsty monsters or nice
people who are just blinded by narrow-minded dogmatism. Not so. While
some of the things God commanded in the Old Testament make me
uncomfortable, it doesn't shake my faith as a Christian, because my
biggest reality is Jesus, who loved sinners like us and gave up his
life on our account to restore us to God's grace when we didn't
deserve it, and who rose from the dead, showing the world that the
grave isn't the end.
Does
that mean I ignore the Old Testament, or pretend the parts I don't
like aren't really there? No. I simply choose to believe what the
writers of the New Testament did – that God knows what he is doing
and we as humans aren't meant to know the exact reason for all his
choices. Here is what I do know – God never punishes the innocent
(see Ezekiel 18). Neither does he break his promises, for better or
worse (speaking in our terms). If he has said he will forgive the
sinner, he will. If the sinner doesn't want forgiveness, he won't.
I
don't have to worry that God's love will disappear from my life if
I'm not good enough, because he will only take it away if I reject
him. In the case of the Canaanites, it was not so much that God had
abandoned them as that they had abandoned God. What had grown
intrinsic to them was a deep, incurable wickedness, one which – for
all we know – might have become part of their very DNA. How can we
know for sure? Only God knows. He is, however, a God I trust. He has
earned that from me. Not that God owes me anything, but by his
actions he has shown himself to be as trustworthy as he claims.
When
you realize Jesus loves you, you know what matters most.
Would
reading about the conquest of Canaan open the door to creating a
dangerous and violent version of Christianity? Only among those who
don't really know Jesus, who haven't heard his words and refuse the
path of peace as he did – even though his existence spelled doom
and conflict for those who hated him, not by brute power but by
humility and truth, and a warning of the coming judgment by God, not
by man, for sinners who rejected forgiveness. Anyone who knows Jesus
knows that it is the peacemakers who will be called Sons of God, not
the violent.
What
is your biggest reality? Is it big enough? Only you can answer that.
