Shattered

 A woman almost entirely garbed in black, except for the slightest slit for her eyes stands at the bus stop next to a young, loud girl dressed in as little as possible.

Both are trapped in a pit of imprisioning ideas.

A  now house-bound career chaser, due to lockdowns, tells of how she has become a 'star' on "fans only" by using herself as the commodity, noting that she's "living the marxist dream - sole owner of the means of production".

A 'representative' of new feminism tells a news broadcast why the collection of cells in a women's womb isn't human, but a 'parasite' feeding off what it does not have a right to have.

All evidenced this week.

And then there's this (spotted in town):

Children being presented as at the forefront of new vaccination programs...

Transcendence once again being trumped by the march of trans-humanism.

No doubt some will query that, so let's dig a little deeper.

My parent's would have said it probably all started with Elvis' hips, and he was certainly one of the first icons to get VR (virtual reality) treatment, but before that there had been the roaring twenties, and head back further, and you have the Adamites and Anabaptists, or the ascetics.... all seeking in their own way to bring heaven down to the level of 'their thing', whatever that may have been. The key difference today is we no longer have to just visualize this (our ideas) -  now, thanks to technology, we can virtualise it, and that process is on the cusp of becoming totally immersive in the real world.

Perhaps you also noticed another key element in much of what's touched on in this list - the harnessing of the vitality of youth.

So, where will that take us? What will it be like to live in our realm where the virtual becomes the normal - where what is imagined is what becomes our reality?

It's always been suspected that escapism would be a big part of such environs, but the shocking truth is almost certainly far darker.

Back in the 1980's, a Science Fiction movie dared to ask what would happen if you allowed our current human nature's unfettered access to a realm where virtually anything was possible, and thereby everything could impact upon reality? Brainstorm was a film several decades ahead of its time, because it confronted the very boundaries we are currently seeking to cross - where the material and the spiritual will be allowed to join without any true perception of what we are actually dealing with.

Imagine placing a young child with only the most basic of skills in a room filled with objects and devices that could cause very serious harm without a guardian to prevent such trouble. Now consider the child having been prepared for being alone in such a place with the notion that they were entering a room where 'lots of good things' were there for them to enjoy....

VR is being offered to us as a benefit, to enhance, to heal, to amplify, but embedded in all of these notions is the malignancy that we omit to face - just like the statements I opened with, just like the poster promoting new, novel vaccines, what is actually occurring is a program of moving people further and further away from something we all actually need... being human.

That's why I'm convinced Christianity really matters. It isn't about offering us some kind of virtual addition to our troubled lives - it's about making reality itself count in such a way that whatever we go through, including death, we find what is truly profound and eternally substantial, and this validates our present frame of reference, and grants us union with a God who is also far above and beyond that.

The 'strong delusion' of the end times is a lie which seeks to dismiss and suppress such a reality - to cause us to place our confidence in a falsehood at the expense of resting in what is truly good (2 Thessalonians 2:11). When such folly becomes evident, notes Paul, then we need to draw upon our faith being the 'first fruits' of a life established and flourishing in the reality of the Gospel, anchoring us to all that is vital and significant in a life with and before God in Christ.

In these extremely arduous days, let us draw our comfort, hope and genuine rest from this astonishing grace.