Living In Illusions

A couple months ago, some friends and I watched the newly released “Illusionist.” Interesting film. As usual, I could do without a few parts, but all in all, it was a decent movie. I won’t give away the story completely in case you haven’t seen it (and do intend to), but I will use it’s general plot as an illustration. As a summary, the main character in the movie was a magician who had many tricks up his sleeve, his flagship act being that of seemingly bringing spirits back from the dead and having them appear at his shows, even on occasion walking the aisles of the early 1900 Vienna concert hall. Yes, strange. However, just as strange is our tendencies as humans to assume that which does not exist. Let me explain further.

What do you think other people are thinking? Maybe you think they’re thinking bad thoughts about you. Maybe you make assumptions that people don’t like you. Maybe you’ve interrupted a friend’s disturbed countenance as a frustration towards you. It’s possible that much of our lives are shaped by phantoms. Not literal spirits, like those wandering the world of “The Sixth Sense,” but self evolved perceptions which cripple our joy, our peace, and our love for other people.

I personally have lived much of my life assuming the worst of people. I’ve been guilty of judging others’ motives too quickly. I’ve lost sleep over wondering if someone is upset with me. I’ve wearied myself attempting to settle a case which is not my own to solve.

Do you live in expectation? What picture does that phrase evoke in the fog of your mental landscape? Many Christians probably think about heaven when they hear the word “expectation.” Today, I want to present an alternate use for the phrase. We are always living in expectation... whether it be the expectation of a pay check this Friday or a home cooked evening this evening... or even simpler and often overlooked, the expectation that our next breath will be there when we reach for it. The conflict comes when our expectations aren’t met. We do the same thing with people. We hold expectations over our friends and family. In our minds, it can be a given that different individuals will act certain ways in certain situations. These type of assumptions aren’t necessarily bad (as trust is developed through some predictability), but a problem can occur when we start adding our own dots to the connect-the-dots puzzle. By this, I mean we start to fill in the blanks. We begin to judge our brother’s motive or our sister’s heart. We take it upon ourselves to crack the code of another’s complex personality and human incongruency. Here lies a great danger.