How to Accept Reality and Not Live in Fantasy

Every branch of life has something that they try to sell people, and they indirectly or directly say "If you do this certain thing, your life will be perfect." Whether it is doctors with medication, governments with their idea of Communism, Christian churches with just faith in Jesus or the "baptism of the Holy Spirit," education with degrees, the fashion industry with beauty, money, drugs and alcohol and even video games. But the fact is, no matter what you do, your life will never be perfect, because we live in a fallen world. Satan is the ruler of this world and no matter what dream you try to chase after, no matter what quick fix you try to get, life will always be hard to some degree. The only thing to do is accept that life "is what it is." Amen.



Steps

1. Realize that doctors are trying to sell happiness through pills. If you are depressed and you tell any doctor or psychologist about it what will they tell you? "Here take these pills. They will fix your problem?" But will they really?
What is the unspoken expectation about the pills? That they will make you happy and that they will, or might, make your life perfect. But to believe that would be to live in a fantasy.
2. Marx had the same dream of a utopia when he invented Communism. He literally thought that he would be the Robin Hood and the savior of the world by creating Communism.
Marx believed that stealing from the rich and giving to the poor would create a perfect society where everybody would be happy. But did that happen? No, obviously not. He was just another man living in a fantasy.
3. Christians, or any person of faith, tries to sell that religious faith will make your life perfect. Some Christians try to say that getting the extra "Baptism of the Holy Spirit" will make your life perfect.
But the fact is life sucks for every single human being alive, religious or not.
You may experience a high off of either a new faith or this extra dose of the Holy Spirit for a time, but as with everything, the newness fades away with time and you are again left with the mediocrity and difficulties of life to deal with.
4. For a person's entire life in school, the education system tries to sell you that good grades and more degrees will make your life perfect. It's easy to think that if you had a PhD, then your life would definitely be perfect. But that is yet another fantasy lie from Satan.
More degrees, a PhD, perfect grades etc. will not make you as happy as you think it will.

Many people reach their graduation day for a degree thinking it will be a big high of some sort, but it isn't. It is just like any other day and it really isn't that special.

Being one of the smartest kids in school will not make you happy.
Being one of the smartest men in the world will not guarantee you a perfect life, because a perfect life is impossible for anyone.
5. The fashion industry tries to sell lies to women all over the world that if you can become beautiful, your life will be perfect. But that is another fantasy lie straight from the pit of hell, Satan. They try to tell you that if you get certain clothes, you will be happy. That is why so many women have shopping addictions.
For a comical education on this watch the movie "Confessions of a Shopaholic." It is very good. Also "The Devil Wears Prada" is great. The beauty/fashion industry also says to women that if you get the perfect make up, you will be happy.

They tell you that if you can fit into a size 1 or 3 your life will be perfect, which is by far the WORST lie and leads to thousands, if not millions, of women to eating disorders of throwing up or starving themselves. Are those girls happy? No! Far from it!
6. Money is by far the biggest fantasy lie from Satan. Everyone thinks that if you could just win the lottery or inherit a million dollars your life would be perfect, but that is a another huge lie.
Money does not make people happy. The richest people in the world are often times the most miserable. Why? Because then think of all that you would have to worry about. The more you have, the more you have to worry about loosing yes?

This is why God says "Do not love the world or anything in the world" because anything in the world will only make you miserable and will only pull your heart away from God. So be very careful. It's very easy for any worldly thing to become an idol. It's easy to be deceived by so many things in the world.
7. Then there are drugs, which appeals mostly to young people because they aren't very intelligent yet. They seem to have an inability to think of long term effects for things. They aren't educated enough on how much drugs can damage your body and your brain.
There is the same lie with drugs, "Your life will be perfect if you take this drug." But you only need to watch any movie about a star to realize that too is a huge fantasy lie from Satan.

The movie "Ray" is a good example of the negative effects of drugs.
8. Alcohol is a kind of drug that appeals more to older people and sells the same lie of a happy, possibly perfect life. It is another escape. Alcohol commercials are infamous for advertising happy people who are in perfect shape, drinking beer etc.
The lie they are selling you is that if you drink beer you will have lots of friends, be happy and have the perfect body. But the reality is that beer actually raises the estrogen levels in men so they develop hips and a womanly stomach. You may have lots of friends but that does not mean at all that they will be good friends to have. And you will not be happy.

Alcohol is a depressant and it actually makes people more likely to have depression, not happiness. It may make you not feel pain for a night, but pain will come in the morning. :) A lot of pain.
9. Last but definitely not least there are video games, which mainly appeal to men. The most popular and the most highly addictive video games are the online games, like World of Warcraft etc.
The lie that these tell you is "Play this game and you will never be bored. You will always have plenty of friends, and your life will have purpose and meaning." And it does keep you from getting bored, if you play every minute that you aren't at work. It does give you a lot of friends; you can chat with people online about the game. But does it really give you purpose?
Perhaps it will give you a shallow purpose but not a purpose that will actually bring fulfillment to your life.
10. What good are you doing for society in playing that video game? No good. It is purely a selfish form of escape and entertainment, and like all things we do for selfish gain, in the end they will only make us MORE miserable, not more happy.
Most likely someday you will regret that you wasted so many hours of your life playing a video game that had no eternal significance and did not really benefit you or anyone else.



Tips

  The solution is to find what your purpose in life is. For the Christian, our purpose is to fulfill the Great Commision as Jesus said, "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations." Not in a pushy mean way, but we still need to do all that we can. The only way to find fulfillment in life is to worship and serve God, the only true God, which is the God of the Christian Bible, because that is what we were created to do. That is the only real way to find lasting joy in life. Your life won't be perfect by any means, but it will be much better than it was before, guaranteed, because you will finally feel that your life has purpose and meaning to it. Instead of trying to make yourself happy, make God happy, and that will bring you more happiness than anything else in the entire world can. Amen. :)


Warnings


Don't try to escape reality; learn instead to accept reality. That is true maturity.