Have you contemplated how much of your life is unreal? Strange thought, perhaps, but consider.

How much time do watch TV? Or videos? Or other similar reality substitutes like computer games. Or even fantasy books, escapist literature of all kinds... Today's term is virtual reality. It looks real, it sounds real, it feels real--but it's not.

In the words of T S Eliot: "Human kind/ Cannot bear very much reality." So we prefer the dream, the illusion and life in this unreality of our fantasy life. And much of modern-day entertainment is directed towards this end. You "lose" yourself in a good book (and who defines what is good?). You become "absorbed" playing some game. You are "obsessed" with some pop idol or film star or TV programme. (You don't believe it? Just ask a "trekkie"--someone who thinks Star Trek is for real!)

Flying upside down at Disneyland or wherever, feeling that (safe) thrill of rushing down Thunder Mountain on a "runaway" train or falling off a waterfall on Slash Mountain or whirling in the dark in Space Mountain. A mountain of tactile experience with your inner-ear balance mechanism going haywire.

Just for fun. Or murdering millions of aliens on the computer screen, or (even better?) playing some war game with your virtual reality helmet on so it really feels like you're there...

As John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote, "Living is easy with eyes closed, Misunderstanding all you see..." In their supposedly drug-influenced Strawberry Fields "nothing is real"--and so you live, without coming into touch with harsh reality. "The dreamer is the realist of today" (Maurice Lavanoux).

So what does this say about the God of reality? And who is trying to make sure we never connect with reality and life our lives as some vast illusion?

Escapism is everywhere. Virtual reality denies not only the physical reality around us but also the reality of life with all its spiritual implications. Is it any wonder this world is running blindly down the alley of greedy self-indulgence and mindless pleasure. Whatever happened to our "higher principles"? Much of this is due to rejecting the God of true reality, and following those so clearly described in Romans 1.

The result? People end up believing the lie of unreality, because they prefer it to the truth, the truth of God. "They exchange the truth about God for a lie" (Romans 1:25 TEV).

The words of God against those who worshipped their idols in the past speak to us today with our techno-gods: "They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds are closed so they cannot understand. No-one stops to think..." (Isaiah 44:18,19 NIV).

The whole world seems to be falling into a trance, a dream-like experience (or is it a nightmare) when you choose to live with eyes closed because it's easier, and you can then misunderstand everything you "see"--or what you think you "see". And what of the perception of real events and real decisions for now and eternity?

The words of Jesus speak to us now more than ever: "I have come in order that you might have life--life in all its fullness" (John 10:10 TEV).

© Jonathan Gallagher