The Morpheus Question

The word “real” has been stretched so much that it’s come to mean anything and everything. Which makes it in danger of meaning nothing. We see it as a vaguely good quality. Certainly better than being fake. But if we’re going to get real, what are we being?

When we declare or define reality by our terms or the things we’ve made to define it, then knowingly or unknowingly, we’re beginning to define the real by the artificial. Many consider “real” another word for tangible. Yep, this table is real. My truck is real. But, of course, the intangible can also be real. Like our thoughts and gravity. Or that gathering last night that, beyond who was there or where it took place, was really “real.”

In the movie The Matrix, Morpheus asks Neo an intriguing question. “What is real? How do you define real?” He goes on to say, “If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.” Yet clearly, that’s not the deeper real he is after. Nor is it the deeper real we’re after.

Only the most real gets to define what’s real. God alone created reality so if we want to get real, it begins by seeking him above everyone and everything else.

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