This August we're revisiting some significant messages from our journey so far. This particular message invites us to explore the importance of doubt and how we find our way when life doesn't turn out the way we expect.
The Truman Show follows the life of Truman Burbank, a man who is seemingly living a normal life in a normal town, but he's yet to discover that in reality his life is a directed tv show and all his friends and family are actors. We follow his story today as he starts to doubt the nature of the world around him and see how his questioning finally leads to freedom.
"Doubt was a dirty word when I was growing up and yet the problem is, if you remove the element of doubt, you'll never get free of what then becomes the prison of belief. Rampant, unchecked and unchallenged beliefs are just as problematic as rampant, unchecked and unchallenged doubts. Each are equally dangerous."
"We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented."
This compilation of clips from the movie shows how Truman begins to doubt the reality of the world he's been presented but as he starts to join the dots, others want to keep him trapped in a counterfeit world.
Do you remember joining the dots as a child to make a picture? It's likely that the original version of joining the dots was done by ancient people as they made patterns from the constellations in the sky, joining the dots of distant stars to make lions, bears and ploughs!
Similarly, in our own lives, sometimes we can't see the whole picture of what is real until we see things through a different set of eyes and go the journey of making the necessary connections.
This movie has a clever title: The Truman Show... The True Man Show!
What does it take for us to become our true selves?
Ekhart Tolle once said... "Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness."
Just like our join-the-dots game, we simply need to look for whatever is next for us. For Truman, that required facing his fear of water and sailing into the unknown.
Did you notice that Truman's freedom came not from his faith, but from his doubts?
Many of us from a Christian upbringing, grew up with the idea of "The Will of God", the idea that there is a divine plan, that we must be careful not to miss out on and many lived in fear of missing out on the will of God. Outside of church, many still hold this idea. Just listen to sports stars who in post-match interviews, declare "It just wasn't meant to be!"
This is just one of those concepts that may require a prescription of doubt to bring us to freedom and help us find meaning.
Meaning means moving, moving means changing, changing mean challenge, which means overcoming our fears and having the bravery to ask some questions and raise some doubts.
Deconstructing and questioning the reality of the world with which we've been presented is no easy task but it will help us find freedom and genuine meaning and so we hope you'll join us in this quest and continue to join the dots.
"A life that's full of wonder is a wonderful life."
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