LIFE LESSONS

What Is Real?

Wallace Alcorn

The Friday afternoon rush hour traffic on the outbound Eisenhower again came to a halt. I grabbed my notepad and scribbled the questions I had just tried to answer on my live call-in a program called “Dial the Pastor.” WMBI, the flagship radio station of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago where I was teaching, broadcast these weekly so listeners could ask any question they wish about the Bible and the Christian life. My producer usually pushed as many calls through as possible, but that day he held it to three. They were compelling and were desperately asked.

My first caller was a discouraged middle-age, mid-level executive of a national firm. He was on the fast track professionally and half-way up the corporate ladder of success—licking the feet of those above and stepping on the fingers of those beneath. He was serially successful but never finally so. He was moving up without ever arriving.

His question was: “Where am I supposed to be going, anyway?” He lacked a sense of purpose.

My next caller was a young woman PhD candidate in philosophical theology at the University of Chicago. She had been in and out of one religion after another. Initially, each seemed attractive, but she soon recognized most had some competing answers, but none offered the final answer.

She asked: “Is there anything I can really believe in?” This woman was searching for meaning.

My final caller had neither the achievements of the first caller nor the knowledge of the second. She was just an ordinary, worn-out woman abused by every man in her wretched life and abandoned with nothing to show for her fatal risks.

Her question was, “Is life really worth living?” She longed for just a little worth in her inconsequential life.

Here are the questions again: “Where am I supposed to be going, anyway?” “Is there anything I can really believe in?” “Is life really worth living?”

As I wrote them down, it came to me these actually were one question asked from peculiar perspectives. All asked if there is anything real. Is there any purpose or meaning or worth in life? None of these was living—just existing. All three felt purposeless, meaningless and worthless.

With further thought, the answer dawned on me. And it is but one answer, because these were one question: What is real?

Not surprisingly, the answer came from Jesus. What embarrasses me is I had known the answer all my life: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

“Where am I supposed to be going, anyway?”: “I am the Way.” “Is there anything I can really believe in?”: “I am the Truth.” “Is life really worth living?”: “I am the Life.”

This is purpose and meaning and worth: Jesus Christ. This is what is real; this is reality.

This is what Jesus told his disciples, and this is what he is telling us now: We experience reality in the person of Jesus Christ.