Okay, so I finally watched The Matrix for the first time. I’ve heard that movie referred to, heard it critically discussed in class on worldview, and apparently this movie has a very faulty worldview – it’s fiction, what do you expect? But I finally watched it and it made me realize something.
This blog will be full of spoilers, so if you, like me, haven’t seen The Matrix, spoiler alert. Basically, in the movie, this “real“ world that we live in is not real at all. It’s a computer construct. When you wake up from here, you’re in the real world. But as long as you’re here, it’s a bit like you’re dreaming. Gravity is a computer construct, a false reality, and if you realize that, you can bend the rules, defy gravity. Same with dodging bullets and so forth.
When the mentor character was trying to teach the main character this, he took him into a computer construct and jumped from one building to another, a distance way too far to actually jump, and challenges the guy to jump. Here I am thinking, “dude, you’re in a dream. Don’t jump off that building and onto the next one. Jump off the building and fly.” How many of us, when we realize were dreaming, decide hey, until I wake up, I might as well fly. Am I the only one? But no, he jumps, he falls. And when he lands, and wakes up in the real world, he’s got blood in his mouth from the fall. The moral of the story being while nothing that happens the computer construct is actually real, it can hurt you because your mind is so convinced it’s real it makes it real. At this point, I start speaking to my computer screen, telling my Netflix movie, “dude, why are you worried about being shot? It’s not real. You can only die if you believe you can die, and if you’re so convinced this is not real, you know you can’t die, and then you can’t die!” My computer screen did not respond.
And apparently, the guy actually does figure all this out toward the end, start flying and stops dying. But silly as it was that he was worried about dying to begin with, I realize I do the same thing.
Yes, that worldview is faulty and we do live in a real world. But Satan has hacked it, and created a false computer construct reality around this world that God is created. He has rewritten the laws of physics, and we believe them.
Laws like people can’t change. Laws like forgiveness is earned. Like we can forgive, but not forget. Laws like worth comes from self or worth comes from works or Grace comes from works. And no matter what I claim to believe, somehow I keep finding myself believing that lie. Living in the false reality that Satan has constructed.
But what if I saw it for what it was? Could I relearn the laws of physics?
If I could recognize that the gravity of guilt is a total fabrication, could I jump from this building to the next one? Can I jump off and fly? In real terms, could I leave the past in the past and move forward like I’m free? Could I recognize that the death Satan threatens me with is nothing more than an imaginary bullet coming at an imaginary body, and mine is safe hidden with Christ in God, and the only thing that can hurt me is my mind believing it can?
So what lie have I fallen for today? What hacked law of Satan am I living by like it’s real? And what could I do if I didn’t believe it?