The Reality of God

We have to give credit to ourselves. As a human race we sure have advanced since the days when Jesus walked the earth. When we want to talk to Billy down the street we just pick up Bell’s old invention the telephone and talk to Billy in real time. When we want to see what sally has been up to lately we just jump on the World Wide Web log on to Tom’s silly invention, Myspace and in seconds we can be looking at pictures of sally’s Saturday shopping spree.

People have developed and evolved greatly as well. It seems that through our lives we look up and attach to so many different people which started first with our parents, then our brothers and sisters, friends, teachers, different friends, and bosses, where as to back in Jesus’ time there was not near as many faces rushing through ones life.

Material reality is a term which describes our world of “things” and possessions where the only style that is not changing is change it self. I remember back to a Halloween of my elementary days when Power Rangers was where it was at. They had cool moves, awesome catch phrases, and most of all the coolest battle droid thing in the world. So obviously with all of this going on I had to be a Power Ranger that year.

It was so important to me that when Wal-Mart was out of stock with all the manly Power Ranger costumes, I made my mom take me to a different store so we could find one. That night was pretty fun getting to be a defender of good and fight the bad, but all the excitement left Power Rangers just as fast as it had come and next year I was off wearing the new “in” thing.

As I grew up I began to care and cherish other material things one of the most recent being my new cell phone. I have one of those Trio phones that will just about do anything you could ever imagine. It maps up with satellites in space to calculate what type of mood I will be in today and it uses high sensitivity electrical flash readings to tell me who I want to call before you even think of calling them.

Okay, okay, so maybe it doesn’'t do all of that, but never the less, its pretty cool and I like it a lot. If any of you have ever gotten a new cell phone you probably know what kind of pride you might have for that thing and it may not only be a cell phone that you prize or value, but it could also be clothes, cars, money, and many other materialistic things. All of this stuff can bring you joy and be helpful to you, but these materialistic things are not something that you can rely on to truly be there for you or always make you happy.

A second reality of this world is social reality. Social reality is all the people in your life that come in contact with you whether significant or not. Sometimes the rapid changes in social realities that we as teens experience through high school and moving off to college gives us the tendency to wear masks which hide who we really are and what we believe. The way I deal with social reality varies from time to time. Usually if I’m with someone I know well then I am able to be my self, relax, and express my beliefs and ideas. But when I’m around people I don’t know well I become tense and don’t really feel like I have the right to be very opinionated.

Also at times when I’m around different people I become someone I’m not. Two weeks ago I went to my college’s orientation. I was in a new environment with people I didn’t even know and because of this I decided to put a mask over Austin that made him shy, lazy, and unwilling to say hello and meet other people. Luckily after time I was able to take off that mask and was able to meet some pretty cool people. I’m learning as I move on to college that it is difficult to rely on one physical person to be there for you and help you through your growing years.

Every year of high school you can end up with different groups of kids you don’t know and if your lucky enough to be able to stick around with a group you cant expect that group of friends to move on with you to college. You move so fast in this world now a days that its just so hard to have someone there for you all the time.

These two realities are real and in our world everywhere. This talk is not intended to have you ignore these because sense they are in this world we will have to deal with them and realize that they are always changing, therefore not making them good foundations to build your life upon.

There is one more reality that I have not spoken of yet and this reality is one that you can build your life upon it and it is called spiritual reality. Spiritual reality will never change and we can trust on it to be there for us 100 percent of the way and it is the reality that is God. Some of the things we experience spiritual reality with are faith, the life of Jesus Christ, prayer, and the sacraments.

I consider faith to be my strong point in my Christian life. I have lots of faith in God; that he will make it all work out in the end and I put my trust in him as much as humanly possible. Any time I am scared, lonely, down, or just don’t know what to do I have the faith to turn to God and know that he will pull through. Its quite evident that God is the only person who can be there for you 24/7 in this world of rush, hurry, and tomorrow. He also is much more meaningful than any stupid old material item could be.

A new computer might make you happy for a while but that will eventually wear away and when that does it may seem like you don’t have anything going for you, but God will always be there for you. He is the one person that can help you deal with all the material and social realities. He can help you take off your mask more often to show the wonderful selves He created us as.

All of what I’m saying comes down to our purpose and how it needs to be more than just physical and worldly. We need to prioritize ourselves to make sure that our number one purpose for existence is to find the changeless reality that is God. I encourage you to find it in your life.