Do you remember the movie, The Truman Show?
I want to use this old movie to help explain a term we're hearing about as our congregation progresses through Randy Frazee's study, called The Story. Pastor Frazee talks about the Upper Story vs. the lower story. The lower story is what we experience (and how we explain) the day-to-day. The Upper Story is God's bigger plans and purposes. We call our daily life real. And it seems real. It's all that most people know. But we're invited to discover a bigger reality. That's God's Upper Story … and that's where The Truman Show comes in.
Truman is a 30-year-old man whose entire life has been filmed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, since the moment he was born. But he doesn't know he's part of a reality show.
How is that possible? Before he was born, a TV company constructed a dome. They made up a community (and a "world") just for him – with thousands upon thousands of tiny little cameras. And everyone, from parents … to friends … to girlfriends … are actors.
But his actions are real.
He doesn't know he's part of a reality show, and people all over the world find that fascinating. They tune 24/7 every day for 30 years.
How does the reality TV show pull this off? They started early. When Truman was a little boy, they constructed a huge sound stage. They built a whole fictional city and placed it on an "island." When his father, an actor, wanted off the show, they saw an opportunity to make Truman more afraid of the outside world. They had Truman's father go sailing. They faked a "storm." And they let a little boy believe his father was dead.
It was high drama. It got great ratings. And their star, Truman, was more fearful … and even more bound to his "fake reality."
That's the way the world is for us. We call this world "real." And it seems real because it's all we've ever known. But just as Truman had a bigger, more real world of six billion people going on all around him, we have a bigger, more real reality going on around us. This world is just temporary. There is a greater spiritual existence that is eternal.
A few things begin to wake Truman up. A sound stage light falls from what he's always thought was the sky, and signals are crossed one day on the radio. He hears someone announce something like, "Truman's driving up Main Street. I need twenty actors over there quick, pretending to be shoppers, and remember to wave at Truman."
He finally makes a break for it. He sails away and after a few hundred yards runs into the sound stage wall! He feels his way along the edge of the sound stage until he finds a hidden set of stairs and escapes his "fake reality" and walks out into what is really real.
Do you see the parallels?
But can you guess why I almost didn't use this illustration? I didn't want to confuse anyone with the fact that in the movie there's an almost omnipotent director of "The Truman Show." I didn't want anyone to confuse this powerful character with God! But think about … Who is it, in the spiritual realm, who intentionally manipulates our view of reality? Who is it that constantly lies to us? Who is it that continually keeps us imprisoned?
God wants to set us free from this lower story of sin and death and invite us into his Upper Story of forgiveness, grace, freedom, and hope.
In Christ's Love,
a guy who wants to experience real reality,
instead of our current reality-TV-type imitation
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