The Truman Show

I’m sure that many of you are familiar with the movie “the Truman Show.”  I have only seen it once, about five years ago, but I still remember it clearly and it crosses my mind every once in a while. In it, the main character, Truman, is actually starring in his own hit TV series…but he knows nothing of it.  The entire world that he lives in caters to, and revolves around him, but he is completely unaware of it.  His world is confined to a bubble, and everywhere he goes there is a camera following him.  After watching that movie, it’s difficult not to become a little bit suspicious of your friends and surroundings, and wonder if they are actually paid actors and elaborate sets. 

A little while ago I was passing through the Kipsongo slum, (the place where a lot of the kids at Mercy Home originally come from) and I suddenly knew without a doubt that there was no way that I was on “the Candice Show”.  The world is too real.  I realized just how self-centred I can be.  Even if we don’t go as far as believing that the events of the world are a TV show unfolding with us as the protagonists, it’s easy to convince ourselves that we are more important than we actually are.  It’s easy to forget about the things that we don’t see, and imagine that the only things that are real are the things that are in front of us.

And GOD.  Wow, that’s another one.  I have had him in a box all my life.  I have this idea in my head of what he’s like, and it is so confined.  I have my own ideas of what worship is like, what preaching should sound like, how long church should be, what singing should sound like, and oh my word, things are so diverse here in comparison to Canada.  It’s incredibly exciting to imagine all the parts of Jesus that I never even knew existed!  Like how He sees the street children of Kitale, and loves them the exact same amount that He loves me and you, and how He ALWAYS did, even long before I considered coming over here to meet them.  Like how He doesn’t require our praises to be in English, and that I don’t need to understand what people are saying in order for it to bless the Lord.  (This sounds shallow and obvious I’m sure, but it had never crossed my mind before!) So I challenge you to start taking God out of the box that you have Him in.  He is so much more than assumptions and clichés…He is HUGE!  As long as we live, we will never fully understand Him.  But why not get a start?