I recently watched the 1999 movie “The Matrix” again. In this movie the majority of the population go about living their lives not knowing that the world they are living in is not the real world(In the movie it is a computer based program they’ve been placed in). Everyone is just consumed with their daily lives having no realization that all of the comforts they are currently seeking aren’t even real.

The main character Neo is offered a choice. He may take a blue pill and stay ignorant to the truth and live like everyone else, or he may take a red pill with the only promise being that he will know the truth.

In the movie there is a character who wishes he had never taken the red pill. He believes that life was so much better before he knew the truth and he makes a deal to have his memory wiped in order that he may live once again in the fake world where life just seemed easier.

For those who know that the Matrix is not the real world there is a constant battle as the rulers of that world don’t want them interfering.
At the very end of the movie the character Neo says, “I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.”

How many in our world live as if this is it? Living to find fulfillment and enjoyment in what this world has to offer and are oblivious to the fact that this reality, this world is nothing in comparison with eternity.

There are some who find the truth, but so want to be like the world around them that they live as if they do not know the truth that sets them free as they seek the passions of the world. Mark Twain said, “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” Let us be careful not to be fooled and deceived to what we are allowing to shape our heart and desires.

Galatians 5:1 says, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”
It is not freedom to be just like the world and enslaved by its pursuits and passions-It is freedom to have relationship with God, to know that we are strangers in this land, and be okay with that because this is not our real home.

We will be tempted and distracted by this temporal world around us-
“So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.
Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.” (Colossians 3:1-4 The Message)

May you and I not be absorbed with this life and the things around us. May we truly walk in the freedom that Christ brings knowing, yes, we are aliens in this land, but we will have a glorious homecoming. May we not be distracted and pursue what the majority around us do, but rather may we be so distinctive and different that those around us can’t help but take notice.

You and I won’t make a difference trying to be like everyone else. Pursue Christ and let Him continually mold you and make you distinct and different from those around you in this world as you are made in His image.

You have to be different to make a difference! – Be Lifted High