Making Sense of Fantasy

God made us with a creative imagination. We can achieve little without it. But imagination which allows us to put ourselves in another person’s shoes, has a positive and a negative side. The positive side is that we can become more understanding, more accepting and better at relating to that person. The negative side is that we can be sucked into a fantasy life in which we are 007, God’s gift to the opposite sex, or Spiderman saving the world.

Fantasy by definition is not reality. We can only imagine ourselves to be others, we can’t actually be them. We may use fantasy to escape from the humdrum of life. We may use fantasy to give ourselves the illusion of a more secure life where we are in control. On the other hand we may be seeking to grow our understanding of life for example by exploring how we might react in a certain situation. But we have then to limit our fantasy to what we know we are, and allow the situation to have elements beyond our control.

Fantasy can go beyond healthy limits and impinge on reality. Firstly it can steal time that we should be using for other purposes - it is a very portable and private entertainment system! But it can also creep into day to day life. It can dominate thinking, like the direct line advert where a straightforward job is spiced up by daydreaming. What the customer thinks when the line goes quiet for a 10 second fantasy break isn’t explored in the ad! Fantasy can even be acted out, we can be convinced that someone is in love with us and stalk them. We can come to a point where we can no longer tell the difference between real life and our dreams. At that point we need deliverance from fantasy.

Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching you are really my disciples. then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31) God’s word not only helps us to face reality, it helps us to break free from the need to replace life by fantasy. While we live in fantasy we are not serving Christ. Paul’s commitment regarding thinking is (2 Cor 10:5) “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

How’s your grip on reality?

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