Fantasy vs Reality

 
     In the midst of a broken heart and a crushed spirit I found/find myself in desperate need of comfort. The anguish is so sever that I find myself seeking comfort the way a drug addict seeks out his/her next hit.  "I need it here and I need it now", my heart, my mind and my body says.  "No questions or conversations, just give me what I need now Lord". But the Lord doesn't work that way does He. He's not our genie in the bottle who appears everytime you rub your bible. No, he says seek me with your whole heart and you will find me. "Seek you with my whole heart?  Who has time for that Lord.  I need my fix and I need it now".

     Seeking him with my whole heart involves me being vulnerable, open, honest, transparent.  I also have to admitt that there is a problem which causes my wounds to blister and bleed and my heart to suffer in anguish.  But for many of us this is all just too much handle.  Too much work. Too much pain. So we find ourselves slipping into a form of fasle comfort. A temporary "fix" we call fantasy. It's a place our mind goes to find shelter from the storm we are in the midst of.  For all of us this fantasy world is different. For some, it's all life void of the pain and sufferings you are currently enduring in your reality. For most it involves running away and living a new life. A "better" life. For others it involves engaging the mind and/or body in activity that relieves the body of pain and replacing it with pleasure. "That's more like it Lord. Now that's what I call a fix,"  I say to myself.
   
     INSTANT GRATIFICATION. That's what I feel I need. But that instant gratification soon turns into sorrow, regret, anger and bitterness. Because once we mentally return to reality, the storms of life are still raging. You are still hurting and absolutely NOTHING has changed. So what do we do?  I'll tell you what we do.  We go back to fantasy land for another fix.  And then another and then another and then another untill we are so entagled in it that we can no longer distinguish reality from fantasy. All because we traded true comfort, which can only come from the Lord, for fantasy, which can never and will never truly satisfy.

     True comfort pulls you in deep, holds you close and lifts you up again. Allowing you to take the next step out of the tsunami that has become your life. True comfort alows us to live our lives together with God each step of the way. It doesn't lie to our senses the way fantasy does. It doesn't give you a taste and then take back from you more than it gave you to begin with. True comfort walks with you through the fire and the floods of life making you whole again--better than you were before.

     True comfort never fails. It never sleeps nor slumbers. It doesn't hide its face or smack your hand for being a bad little girl. There is no condemnation or guilt. There are no I told you so's and 'you should have known better'.  Instead it throws its arms open wide to receive you, allowing its hands and feet to be nailed to a cross and its side peirced with a blade just to show us how much HE loves us. True comfort my love is not a place or a state of mind. True comfort is a person.  Jesus Christ.

     So if you are scared and hurting I encourage you, no I plead with you to cry out to the Lord and pour out your heart to him. Take the risk of facing the truth of your pain and let him TAKE IT FROM YOU. So you no longer have to bear it...

                                                            -Sarabeth