Realizing

To realize is to make real in your life or someone else’s life. Realizing is what the word “believing” probably should mean. It means making tangible and acting on what we already know is true.

For example…

• You know you should eat healthier. You realize it by actually eating healthier.
• You know your family loves you. You realize it by responding instead of brushing it off.
• You know you have a high chance of dying sometime. You realize it by living like your time is limited.

As Christians, we know God exists, loves us, and sent His Son to die and come back to life for us. But we don’t realize it. Most of us don’t anyway.

Most of what we know, we don’t realize. We know too much, but believe – or realize – too little.

Realness is on a sliding scale

What you know can be more real or less real depending on how much you’ve realized it.

I grew up in a world where Pluto, the large hunk of rock orbiting our sun, was a planet. But on August 24, 2006, Pluto become… not a planet. According to the new classification, Pluto didn’t qualify.

Does that matter to me? No, not really. If Pluto had exploded and literally stopped existing, it still wouldn’t have affected me much. For me, Pluto is real but not that real.

I also grew up in a world where I was allergic to apples (crazy, right?). Apples were not cool… especially since they’re in everything: juices, cereals, snacks, and so on. I felt the pain when I accidentally ate something with traces of apples in it, and I felt the annoyance of trying to avoid those foods.

Both Pluto and my apple allergy were real to me, but my apple allergy was much more real than Pluto. You and I have hundreds of beliefs like this, all with different realness because we’ve chosen which beliefs are important to each of us. But…

Realness is separate from truth

The Flying Spaghetti Monster can be real to you without actually “existing.” You can live your life like the Monster exists. You can talk to it and feed it and water it each day.

I’d argue it’s similar to what Muslims believe about Islam, Hindus believe about Hinduism, and Buddhists believe about Buddhism. They can even die for their beliefs… because they’ve realized them. Doesn’t make them true in general, just real for them.

In other words, realness doesn’t correspond to truth as much as it corresponds to perception.

Realizing realness: Why realizing matters

Knowing isn’t worth much. You can know exactly how to make a billion dollars in a day, revamp your marriage in a week, or end world poverty in a month. But if you don’t live like you know it – if you don’t realize it – the knowledge is worthless to you.

I assume you and I are both Christians. As Christians, we have an unspeakable amount of knowledge available to us. The “Jesus died then came back to life” bit by itself is worth more than most people accumulate in a lifetime.

But do we realize it? Do we live it? Is it real in our thoughts and dreams and motives and feelings? Because if not, it’s worthless to us.

Helping others realize

You and I aren’t the only ones who need to realize or could benefit from it. Everyone has loads and loads of knowledge that goes untapped because it’s never realized. And if they never realize it, their knowledge is useless to them too.

The truth is out there but so is doubt. We don’t need to know more stuff – we need to realize what we already know. Are you? Are you even trying to? For a long time, I wasn’t, but I am now.

Serving Suggestions:

(1) Consider some beliefs you have. Pick a big one. Is it real to you? How real? Does it have a personality? Could you touch it or feel it? Come up with at least one major belief you need to realize.

(2) Picture a few of your friends for a moment. Which beliefs do they have that could be more real? Perhaps they know showing up is good, but they never show up. Perhaps they know God loves them, but they don’t live like it. Take a couple minutes to find at least one major belief one of your friends needs to realize.