I can just hear some of your responses as you read the title of this post, “How to escape…”
“Why would I want to escape? After all, I built my world as a place to escape TO, not from.”
Maybe if you read a little bit more you’ll change your mind.
Fantasy football, fantasy baseball, fantasy heroes and heroines, and of course, video combat games. These are some of the things we find in the world of fantasy.
Then, there is something else-one’s imagination. Incredibly more powerful than a Kansas cyclone, it can quickly transport a person from a world of ugliness and disappointment, to a world where everything is perfect.
And much quicker than Scotty could ever manage.
Is it any wonder that so many people have a hard time living in the real world?
But no matter how wonderful the utopian world is, there’s still one huge problem which must be addressed.
It isn’t real. And because it isn’t real, there’s no way it can last. And when it’s over, it’s gone.
Destroyed.
“A hard worker has plenty of food, but a person who chases fantasies ends up in poverty.” (Proverbs 28:19 NLT)
Those who face the world they actually live in, with all its flaws and problems, will eventually find a way to succeed. They can learn how to overcome obstacles, become a better person; whatever. They know it’s necessary to acknowledge one’s weaknesses and sins, instead of escaping to their enchanted world every time they face opposition of some kind.
“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13 ESV)
The fantasy never solves problems; it only hides them. The longer that world exists, the more the problems are multiplied. Eventually it becomes a slave camp; its “visitors” lose their right to come and go as they please. They are trapped, enslaved by the very world they created.
Remember Dorothy from Kansas? She enjoyed her new world for a while, but she finally came to the conclusion, “There’s no place like home.”
Pornography, sexual addiction, is one such fantasy world that can begin with a seemingly innocent peek, as curiosity gets the best of a person. But soon curiosity is forcefully replaced by the demand to pursue and obtain the new, always pleasurable, never disagreeable, world of fantasy.
Then the day comes when the person spends more time in his fantasy world than real life.
Where are you living, these days? Do you have a place, a secret world that only you know about? A world where you can do anything you want, and satisfy any desire you have? You may say you can leave it any time you’d like. Have you tried lately?
Not as easy as you thought?
There are two things you’d be wise in considering.
One, if you don’t escape from your fantasy world it will eventually become your burial ground.
Two, you’ll probably need assistance in breaking out. Especially if you’ve spent much time there. Eventually Dorothy found someone who helped return to Kansas.
The real world is not a very nice place at times, and you definitely never get your way all the time; like in your fantasy world.
But it is a place where you can experience the love and forgiveness of God, and the genuine love of people who don’t judge, but come alongside you to help as you work to establish a new life in your real world.
How about it? Don’t you think it’s time to check out of the world you’ve created and check back into the world you were meant to be a part of?
I do.
Because there’s no place like home.
Jan Grace 