Mirages

As I'm sitting here typing up a paper I'm listening to a band called To-mera. No, you've never heard them or even heard of them. No, you probably won't like them because it's very avant-garde progressive metal. I like them because they mix a kind of dark noire jazz atmosphere in with the metal. But what caught me this morning was their lyrics to the song "Mirage"

"Hush now, the morning's near
Her crystal light will wash away all your fear
Your teary eyes she'll blind with hope
She'll make you believe there's meaning to reveal
Make you believe yesterday couldn't be real

So wipe your eyes now and be brave
Let this false hope lead your way
This frail mirage might just warm your frozen heart
Brace yourself
There really is nobody out there to hold your hand - when you are ready to fail

Darling hush now, the night is near
To bury your pain in darkness and fear
And on the dusty roads we ride with nothing but our foolish pride
Trying to find the way forward
Desperately searching for who we really are

So close your eyes now and be brave
Let those dreams stand in your way
Their frail mirage might just warm your frozen heart
If it's all for the happy days
Don't turn around, don't look ahead for meaning
You will have to face the demons you've erased"

Ok so I don't agree with all the lyricist has to say, but it certainly made me stop and think. I think back on my own life and I can't help but agree with a few things. I think it is good to have hopes and dreams and desires for the future. I think we were made to want this and we need to have these things in our lives. But I also think we often stray from God here. I see so many people lurching from one broken hope to the next, one shattered dream to the next. And I've been there. We pick ourselves up after the fall and take encouragement that the future will be better. But wil it? Maybe I'm just cynical and nobody wants to hear it, but the truth is that the future won't necessarily be any better. Because so often we're not following what God has for our lives. When we're dependent on fulfilling our own hopes and dreams and not God's, we're left holding a mirage. Sure it may make us feel better to look ahead to a bright future where everything works out the way we dream it will. But how many times does that happen? It's just a mirage. It's empty. And it may not be fun to realize that now, but I for one would rather stare reality in the face than keep holding onto something that isn't real. Of course, this all sounds pretty hopeless and depressing isn't it? But it's not. Because there's something better than our own hopes and dreams. There's what God has for us. He has something better and more glorious and more fulfilling. And it's something that he has had for us since the dawn of time. Since before we were even born. It will incorporate your own hopes and dreams but in His own perfect plan. And I think that's more exciting than my own feeble efforts at life. I've held onto plenty of mirages until at last they dissolved and I was left with the cold, hard truth that they were never there to begin with. I'm tired of that. So over the past several years I've started down God's plan for my life. And boy is it better than anything I ever dreamed of. But before you let go of your mirages, do as Jesus suggests and count the cost. Because following Him will be costly. It will be hard. It will require sacrifice. On some level you may have to give up friends and family. So count the cost and be sure you are ready to make the sacrifices that He WILL ask of you. But in return He gives you a fulfilling life. Life and life to the full. To me that is so much better than my old life of clinging to vain hopes and dreams only to find that they are mirages that let me down. Are you riding down a "dusty road" in your life clinging to your "foolish pride"? If so, let go of the mirages that are your own plans and trade them for the real thing.