PrintLiving In Disneyland.
If you were to visit Disneyland in California, you would find these words written over the entrance. "Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy".
It occurs to me that those words remind me of some people I have met over the years. These are people who have passed through an emotional gateway over which those words may well be written. Some of those people enter (and live in) the world of yesterday... the "good old days"! These people easily become prisoners of the past and are unable to fully live in the present.
Other people who live in the past are chained to it by bad memories. Memories of betrayal, heartache, abuse and rejection. The lock on that chain is called "unforgiveness" or "resentment" or "bitterness". They, too, are not free to fully live in the present because the past constantly invades and sabotages the present.
Then there are those who enter the world of tomorrow and fantasy. They seem to be always talking about what they will do when "their ship comes in". Theirs is a world of unrealistic dreaming. Is it wrong to dream? Certainly not! Dreams and hopes provide a lot of positive motivation for the present and the future. What we need to avoid is building "castles in the air" and then taking up residence in them. Fantasy then becomes the landlord and the psychiatrist collects the rent!
Jesus Christ impresses me for many reasons, not least of which is the authentic realism of His life and the realism that He brings to the lives of those who follow Him. Sadly, one caricature of Christianity is the idea that it is nothing more than "pie in the sky when you die". I like to tell people that it is also "steak on the plate while you wait"! It is real life here and now.
Disneyland was designed as an artificial world that is an enjoyable diversion from some of the harsher realities of life. It's a great place to visit but something would be terribly wrong if I wanted to live there!
