Not So Famous…

I just talked with someone who believed something that I thought was impossible to believe in. Defense lawyers always question the nature of reality…it’s their job. That’s what they do. But I never thought that they actually believed what they said…and I thought the same of their clients. But it seems that the nature of reality is a bit confused by a great number of people. But never fear! I am going to clear this up for you…you’re very welcome.

In order to pontificate upon the nature of reality, I feel the need to recount my conversation with this person, who will be hereafter referred to as Howard:

I was perfectly content to work the day without an incident, but God had other plans for me. Today we found out that one of our co-workers passed away yesterday. This woman was not that old, and had she caught what killed her early enough, she might have lived another 30 or 40 years.

Howard walks into the office that a co-worker and I share and announces that this incident proves that we all should be “right with God” because we never know what might happen. (Never mind the fact that this guy doesn’t even know God, let alone be right with him…and no, I’m not judging him…I’m looking at the fruits of his character, but that’s another rant.) My co-worker, who we’ll call Katie, says that she’s right with God but that she wonders if Howard is. Howard answers in the affirmative and tells Katie not to judge him. I would have left it at that because I know Howard. I know what his position is concerning God, and he’s rather wrong. But then he decides he’s going to use Scripture to back him up.

“’Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.’ So you can’t judge me Katie”, he says.

“Alright, Howard,” I respond, because now I’m annoyed. “We won’t stone you, then…because that’s what Christ was talking about there. But if you want to take the symbolic view, why don’t you quote what Christ said after that? He asked if her condemners had condemned her. She answered negatively. Then he said, ‘then neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.’” (But he didn’t want to talk about that aspect of Christ’s ministry.)

Then he started talking about how I needed a witness if I wanted to judge him. (I had no idea what he was talking about…I had said no words of condemnation, or judgment. I merely pointed out that his understanding of that passage was flawed and incomplete.) He also said that if I saw him do something, I needed to get another witness, otherwise it didn’t happen. I told him that it happened whether I had a hundred witnesses or no. He said no, because then it was just my word against his, and nothing can be proven then. I told him that it didn’t matter what I could prove…if he did something, whether or not anyone witnessed it, it happened.

Now we’re getting to the crux of his completely incorrect assumption about reality, and that is nothing can happen unless someone perceives it. Perception is the only reality. (Which is obviously bologna!) So now I must explain to everyone what reality is.

Reality happens. It’s that simple. Reality happens all the time, whether or not you have 2 witnesses, or 1 witness, or no witness. If you want to argue that something didn’t happen, that doesn’t change whether it happened or not. It either happened or it did not, and no matter what anyone says, it’s one of those things, regardless of who won the argument, or the court case, etc.

But even if you want to argue the O.J. defense with me, fine. Two witnesses have to see something happen before it actually happened? OK. Here’s your two witnesses. 1. You. 2. God. There you go. You want to get technical? God is actually 3 witnesses, all of whom are omnipresent, omnipotent, and all that. God perceives everything all the time, so everything has been witnessed. Oh, God can’t prove it in a court of law? OK. How about this…God is a court of law, and everyone, including you, me, and Howard will be judged by God, and let me tell you something. I’d much rather be judged by any judge on this earth than God. A judge can guess what might have happened, but not only did God perceive what happened…he was there through it all. He doesn’t need a jury, nor witnesses. Without Christ as my advocate, I would be condemned by my own actions and be sent to hell just like everyone else. Because God is the ultimate judge…so even if you escape conviction in this life, you’ll never escape it at the end of it.