1 + 1 = "I love you"
April 08, 2010
by Pastor Jeremiah
Have you ever been to a movie and 10 minutes into it you know exactly how it will end? We call that predictability. It's not a good thing in a movie and it's not a good thing in life either.
Think about it ...when you are describing a great book, movie, or play you would never use the words predictable, typical, or common. Instead we may use words like breathtaking, gripping, or extraordinary. I would argue that what we are looking for in a good story is to get outside of ourselves and see what is unseen. This world of cold facts leaves a bland taste in our mouths and we sense that something isn't quite right about it. Like we were made for something more. We often come to find that it is often the most illogical things, the supernatural things, the extraordinary things that are the most true.
Take for instance fairy tales. It's within the narrative of the magical fairy tales that we learn the “mysterious truths” in life. We learn from Cinderella that even the lowest maid can become the fairest princess. We learn from Beauty and the Beast that a thing must be loved before it is lovable. We learn from Jack and the Beanstalk that it's not the size of the man, but the size of his heart that matters most. We learn from Sleeping Beauty that death is a form of sleep, like a nap from which we will awaken once true love comes along. It would appear that the deepest truths come from a place we often describe as unrealistic.
Truth cannot always be determined by the intellect. We must use our hearts (one's mind will and emotions) to discern the whole truth. When I fell in love with my wife, it wasn't because my computer of a brain sized her up and determined that her hair color, lip size, silky voice, skin tone, sense of humor, etc perfectly matched my preconceived list of requirements for a wife. That might have had a part to play if I was Robocop, but unfortunately I don't have machine guns for arms. I'm a human being. I have a will and emotions that have a huge role to play in my well-being. That's why we say, “I fell in love.” It's like jumping off a cliff. Not logical, but very exhilarating.
That's why we love fairy tales, they're exhilarating, but just like the kids from Peter Pan we all have to leave Never-land sometime, or so we were told. But what if our spirits come alive upon hearing these stories because they are, in some sense, true? In fact, what if these fantasies are a deeper reality than the world you and I now live in (call me “Neo”)? It's certainly beyond the realm of possibility, but then again, maybe that makes it the most probable thing of all!
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