In a recent article in The Atlantic, Spencer Kornhaber analyzes several pop-culture TV shows and movies (The OA, Westworld, Stranger Things, Doctor Strange) and concludes that the “search for the metaphysical” (afterlife) is alive and well in the minds of viewing audiences.  This analysis aptly points out that in our post-Christian culture, there is an obsession with a different kind of spirituality-search than what existed several decades ago.  In these days, spirituality involves a search for realities beyond what you can SEE with your physical eyes.  Meaning is created from your own fantasy and the living of this experience in what is often called “hyperrealism.”  In this posture, I create my own reality and my own world.

You’re seeing more TV shows these days with “hauntings,” “ghosts,” “after-death experiences,” “angels,” and the like.  It’s showing us that people have difficulty accepting the real world that they’re in now–yes, it’s a world of of pain, brokenness, trouble, grief, sorrow, mourning, disappointment, and tragedy.  Yet, it is the real world, not a world of make-believe.  Too often, people create alternative realities as an escape to the issues and troubles that they’re facing today.

To apply a popular song line to these “spiritual seekers,” they are “looking for love (meaning) in all the wrong places, and in too many faces.”  Rather than deal with and work through the issues and people in their “real world,” they choose to escape to a world of fantasy and fiction, believing the world of the make-believe is just as real–certainly more desirable–than the world they’re living in now.

The gospel addresses spiritual meaning and hope robustly in the Incarnation: Jesus, the God-Man, who lived in another kingdom, came to this earth and became a human being.  He exercised spiritual authority/power over the natural world with healings, signs and wonders.  He spoke spiritual truth to a world that was living under oppression, fear and hate.  He was brutally tortured and killed, and experienced the afterlife.  Yet, he was the only person to come back to us from the afterlife and tell us that there is another world–a great paradise–awaiting those who place their faith and trust in Him.  He identified with our plight and sorrow by showing us a better way.

With the gospel, you don’t have to create reality.  The gospel presents reality in the person and work of Christ.  If you want to explore metaphysical realities, they can be found in his “unsearchable riches” (Ephesians 3:8).  These riches await those who are in a vital union (saving relationship) with him.  When you know Christ, all the spiritual realities of the Kingdom of God become available to you by faith.  That’s why the writer to the Hebrews can state with confidence: “Faith (not fiction) is the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Bottom line:  biblical faith does not have to create reality.  It gladly sees reality in the person and work of Christ, and draws meaning for everyday life from it.  I don’t need a fictional escape to a non-existent reality.  I have reality in Christ and in his gospel power!