In a world full of chaos, it is easy for us as humans to try and find an escape from reality. Everyone has a hobby, passion, or something that allows them to express themselves without facing judgment from the world. While this is great and highly encouraged for everyone, as Christians, we must be careful. So often, we use Jesus as our escape from reality. When times get tough, we get in our quiet place and spend time with God in the hope that our situation will change. Once we leave that quiet place or escape, we resume a normal life. Our job as Christians is not to have Christ be an escape from our reality, but to bring Christ into our reality. So, what does this mean? Am I saying you need to quit your devotional life or you can’t go to Jesus when life is hard? Not at all! I am simply trying to convey if we never take Jesus into our reality, we miss the point. Let’s break this down into three sections, philosophical, theological, and practical reasoning as to why this is so important.
In a philosophical sense, if we are to hope our situation in life gets better, then we need to not separate Jesus from our devotional and our actual life. If we bring Christ into our reality of pain, injustice, or fear then we can change the mindset about our situation. Our reality may not get better just because we share and act like Christ, but our vantage point of our reality will. Think about it, if we only find comfort and peace when going to Jesus in our quiet place, then our reality will be full of suffering and pain. However, if we brought Jesus into our situation, we can find peace in the middle of the chaos. If our perception of our reality changes because we have Jesus, our outlook on the problems we face will change as well.
Let’s take a look at a theological breakdown of what this means. Now theology is a simple term that is the study of God. Reading the Bible and having an idea of who God is makes us theologians! So, let’s think about the cross. The cross is a place of death and hope. Jesus dying on the cross provided a hope for the world that anyone can be redeemed. As Christians, we need to bring the cross into the pain of the world to restore and show the hope of Jesus Christ. It might be really difficult to bring Jesus into our reality, but is what we are called to do. Jesus says in his prayer to the father in John 17:18 “just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world.” We are called into the world and be the light of hope for the people who desperately need it. We have to be willing to take the name of Jesus where it needs it most. Jesus’ life was stressful and difficult and yet he always brought hope to the ones who were looking for it. Our job as Christians is not to make Jesus a secret we only talk about on Sunday, but rather make him the focal point of our life.
Finally, let’s look at this from a very practical situation and why it is so important we take Jesus into our reality. The situation you might be in could be the only time a person will hear the message of Jesus. Bringing Jesus into your reality may be the only representation of Jesus a person will ever see. We don’t know what people around us are going through or what they have already been through. The worst thing we could do is deny them the opportunity to hear or see the message of Jesus Christ. Being able to go through the pain and still think and act like Jesus is admirable. It’s not an easy task, and it is a lot easier said than done. However, being a Christian isn’t easy. We are called to live a higher standard and go the extra mile. If bringing Jesus into your reality brings someone joy, hope, or even a new look on Christianity, isn’t it worth it? We are called by Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20 to “go and make disciples of all nations”. If we fail to take Jesus into the reality of our life, we silence the Gospel altogether.
