Lost in a fantasy?

James Thurber gave us the short story, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.  A man with a most mundane life drives his wife into town for her weekly shopping and visit to the beauty parlor.  He slips into a daydream with five episodes, in each he is a fantastic hero!  He is a pilot of a U.S. Navy flying boat in a storm.  He is surgeon performing a life-saving procedure. He is an assassin and then a Royal Air Force pilot on a suicide mission. At the end, Mitty imagines himself facing a firing squad. A man lacking in courage in real life, imagines himself as an entirely different individual.  Originally written in 1938, the story is being made into a movie to be released at the end of this year.

Living in fantasy is not just the stuff of stories or movies. This morning’s newspaper reported on a 25 year old man arrested yesterday in a local hospital wearing an officer’s badge around his neck and an air gun revolver in a holster at his waist!  He admitted to doing ‘something stupid,’  because he got caught up in a dream. How easily we become taken up with a daydream that allows to escape the drudgery of our reality.  Rather than dealing with life as it, we can, and many do, build imaginary lives.  The lack of substance and/or accomplishment leads some to escape into pretense, to live a lie. There is a tragic result.  The “Walter Mitty’s” in this world never finds out who they really are or what they are capable of doing. They miss the joy of being who God created them to be, joyfully filling the place in this world for their gifts, experiences, and opportunities.

Here's the direct question - are you a living in the moment, submitting yourself to Christ, allowing Him to grow your destiny in the fertile soil of your present situation?  Or, are you imagining yourself  as some celebrity, pretending you’re some great Christian, talking a much better game than you actually play? The Bible says - "Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. As God’s messenger, I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you." (Romans 12:2-3, NLT)

God loves YOU, friend. He won't love you more if you learn to imitate Mother Theresa or Franklin Graham. If you take that route, you will offend Him! He wants you to be you, a unique person with unique preparations to fill a unique place in this world. Self-acceptance can be difficult. Looking in the mirror- physically and spiritually - reveals reality which isn't always what we want it to be. But, we are worthless to God and ourselves until we face the facts and accept His grace to deal with them, the power of His Spirit to change into the image of Christ.  We are not stuck with what we see! Remember this: God doesn't do 'make-overs.' He does transformations. You and I can be authentic saints! God can take the raw material that is you and do amazing things to create a person full of love, of the beauty of Jesus Christ. Why not start the transformation process right now?

Are you living as a fraud, a pretender?  Tell God that you done chasing an image.  Give up the fake for the real thing. Give him yourself- body and spirit - and ask Him to forgive you for the mistakes, the wrongs that have marred your life and displeased Him. Then, accept His transformational power.  It is a process. We are becomers!  There will be blunders along the way, but - if we are committed to Him and to being authentic- we can be sure that His promise - "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17, NKJV)- will be true!

Live authentically today!

_________

I've been lost in a fantasy, that blinded me,
Until Your love broke through.

All my life I've been searching for that crazy missing part,
And with one touch, You just rolled away the stone that held my heart.
And now I see that the answer was as easy, as just asking You in,
And I am so sure I could never doubt Your gentle touch again.
It's like the power of the wind.

Like waking up from the longest dream, how real it seemed,
Until Your love broke through.
I've been lost in a fantasy, that blinded me,
Until Your love, until Your love broke through.

-          Copyright Keith Green, Todd Fishking and Randy Stonehill

Listen to Your Love Broke Through - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lMHxS3Kv5vg