Do you live with the realities of your life, or is life based on illusions, that is, who think you are and what you do.    Listen to these words from Thomas Merton.  “There is no greater disaster in the spiritual life than to be immersed in unreality, for life is maintained and nourished in us by our vital relationship with realities outside and above us.  When our life feeds on unreality, it must starve.  It must therefore die….the death by which we enter into life is not an escape from reality, but a complete gift of ourselves which involves a total commitment to reality.”  To be spiritual alive, you needs to have the “real you” relating to the “real God”.  God does not relate to unreality, but to what is really there in our lives.

Jesus tells us, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:34).  Jesus came to show us the truth.  Truth is the reality about knowing ourselves, others and the world.  John declares, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).  So if the Lord Jesus lives within your heart, you are receiving grace (help to live the spiritual life) and truth (what is true about our lives).  But all of the help God offers (grace) will do little for us if we are not willing to face the truth about ourselves.

So are you willing to face the truth about yourself.  God cannot have a relationship with our illusions, but only with the real you and your experience of life. We cannot be selective, only giving attention to those parts of our experience what we feel ready to accept.  As David Benner has said, “We must welcome all the visitors that come to the guesthouse that is our self.  Doing so will give us depth and substance that we will always lack when we live in a place of pretense, under the illusion of being in control over who gets access to our house and who does not.”  Failure in accepting unwelcomed guests does not drive them away, they just go into hiding, while we are kept from facing reality

So my encouragement for men is to face the good, the bad, and the ugly in your life.  Always remember that God is at the center, loving you with unconditional love, waiting for you to come home.  Learn to be honest with yourself, accepting who you really are.  God want a “real” relationship with you, one in which you share your hidden parts with him.