Is Reality Too Painful to Bear?

You’re traveling through another dimension… the Twilight Zone.

One of the creepiest TV shows I’ve ever seen was the March 21, 1986 episode of the Twilight Zone series (1985) entitled “Need to Know.” The opening scene begins with a half-crazed old man whispering something in his friend’s ear. Upon hearing it the elderly friend suddenly stares with a look of horror and eerily cries out with a half-laugh, half-shriek. What in the world did his friend tell him? We never find out. All the audience knows is that it has made him go insane.

It is this bizarre outbreak of insanity that brings a government investigator to the small town. The investigator initially wonders if the insanity is due to something in the air or in the water. Or perhaps it’s due to a sickness, since it seems to be passed person to person. He finds out, however, that the source of the insanity is a simple phrase, a short statement that reveals some terrible, painful reality which is like cyanide to our fragile minds. In the closing scene the investigator himself hears the mind-warping truth and becomes a shrieking lunatic.

The concluding narrative states “[A human] is a questioning creature, constantly striving for answers. But there is some knowledge for which he’s not yet ready. Secrets once learned overwhelm him. Secrets that for now are best left undisturbed…in the Twilight Zone.” The episode touches a nerve in all of us and hits upon a deeply rooted fear that the ultimate truth, lurking out there, may be far too painful for any of us to bear.

A Knowledge That Restores

But what if the very opposite is true? What if we already live with a sort of madness now, and lurking out there is a glorious, liberating truth that heals our minds, restores our sanity and pours light into our cave-like existence? What if, when we discover this ultimate truth, the sun suddenly rises on our world, dispels the long night, and fills our lives with brilliant colors we could never have imagined? So wonderful is this new light that we will curse the old darkness that blinded us and loathe ever returning to it again.

Well, the very opposite is the case. The reality is a glorious one. It heals our wounds and cures our madness. It turns our night into day.

The reality is God—the God who loves us unconditionally and who only desires the very best for us. Yet our present madness makes us fear Him. Like the fear that investigator had of the too-terrible-to-bear reality, our half-crazed society cringes at the thought of letting God into our schools, into our government, into our lives. “Belief in God is a dangerous delusion. It’s a deadly virus. It will destroy us.”

But reality is ultimately inescapable. The evidence for His existence just keeps mounting. Those who embrace this reality and allow God to love them, cradle them, guide them, and care for them escape this long, dark dream into eternal life. So leave the madness behind. Come into the light for which God has created you. Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

PRAYER:

Dear Father in heaven, shine the light of Your love into my darkened heart. Help me, Lord, to flee into Your divine embrace and let You love me, I pray. Amen.