I hope that our conversation of the movie The Matrix over the last several newsletters has opened your eyes more fully to the truth that a story can be about anything, even AI talking control of the whole world, but at its core, still be about something much more central to our lives.

From time to time, writers and screenwriters do this on purpose. They write a piece of fiction to very clearly communicate a greater message, like in an allegory. The story is very much a fantasy, and that is a continual reminder to pay attention, for there is a deeper message.

More often, storytellers have a message they want to convey, what inspired them to write the story, but it is usually quite easy to see if you are paying attention. It is often the overarching moral that we should strive to do good, whatever that might be in the context of the story; instead of evil, instead of being lost in selfishness and narcissism. And we all very much need this reminder.

But the message of the Bible and the gospel is much more specific than this. And if you have been following these newsletters, or have read any of my short stories, you should know that I believe God’s story, His very specific story, is deeply imbedded in almost every story which has ever been written. Not something most storytellers have intended to do, not something they are aware of doing. But I have come to believe they cannot help themselves. What is deep in the heart has to come out. And so, it does.

The Matrix movie has the potential to be eye opening for us spiritually because the whole story is about two different worlds. At the beginning of the movie, the protagonist is asked if he has ever felt like his experience during a dream was real? Just like you and me, he says “yes.” And then he is asked something which I don’t think many of us have ever considered:

“What if you never woke up? How would you know the dream was not real?”

And he is just a little stunned, and we should be too, because he realizes that he wouldn’t. Dreams can be very chaotic and crazy, but when we are in them, they seem to be just as real as the rest of our lives. It almost never occurs to us during a dream, that we are in a dream. They shake us, they scare us. We don’t know they aren’t real until we wake up and . . . find ourselves in our bed.

And very few pastors have used The Matrix in a sermon, but they could. As a matter of fact, I don’t know if I can think of a better story or anecdote to use, to make the point that you can believe that one set of values is more important than another, and then realize just how wrong you were, just how wrong you may have been your whole life.

This has been the very experience of millions of believers, when for the very first time they realized they had always believed there was no God, there were no moral absolutes in this life, that their life was their life and theirs to do with what they wanted, that it didn’t matter what they sought to fill the days with, and we could go on and on – only to wake up one day and realize the greater truth that it didn’t matter what they thought about anything, for this universe was created by Someone Else, and only what He thought was real and true.

For many of us, it was just like waking up from a dream, and then realizing, it was only a dream. But it all seemed so real! We should be humbled beyond words.

For me, God used the Story of Prince Rilian from The Silver Chair, the sixth book in the Chronicles of Narnia series. The Prince was not only asleep and dreaming, he had been enchanted for ten years and had lost all memory of who he even was. Sometimes it takes a real shock to the system to not forget, to be motivated to not allow yourself to fall asleep again.

I hope that you can take the time to read my piece on The Matrix, called “The Real War is Inside My Heart, and Yours.” These newsletters are a feeble attempt at communicating what is written there. That piece is a chapter from an unpublished manuscript, something I spent several months writing, thinking about little else, but everything important to say on this topic. And this subject is very, very important. The Matrix not only explains why we are ill and what we are ill from, but also gives our treatment plan, how to fight back against it.

But it is time to find something new to explore. Always open to stories that are your favorite, please feel to send them to me.

Next time,
Sam