Living a Pretend Life

Last week I had a strange thought. What if I created another blog, one in which I would write as someone else--someone living my "dream life"?

Years ago, Tom and I used to drive through the countryside and imagine a wildly-different, dreamy life for ourselves. What if we ran a bed-and-breakfast inn from a great big cobblestone farmhouse on ten acres? What if we had a barn, farm animals and three or four kids under the age of ten who we'd homeschool and let run all over those ten acres?

Dreams like those made us smile. They also made us tired.

(Along the way, Tom and I learned that, although we "can do all things through Christ," we still can only accomplish God's custom-designed plan for us with His custom-fitted grace.)

But back to this Pretend Life blog--

For only minutes I imagined making up a name and yes, a fake life and using the whole thing as a writing exercise. As a way to let my imagination run around the park for stronger muscles, I would describe how I baked blueberry muffins which drew down the inn's sleepy guests from upstairs. Or I'd tell how little Aubrey skinned her knee when she fell out of the swing which she shared with her brother, Benjamin. Or I'd write about gathering apples from the orchard and making a scarecrow with our oldest son, Luke.

I might have quite the audience who would enjoy living vicariously through my romantic country adventures with the inn and all those little kids. People would leave comments. I'd make new friends. It would be great.

Except for one thing: My story would be a lie.

I'd be making friends under false pretences and they'd like me for who I was not. I'd be describing a life which didn't exist and one which I knew nothing about firsthand--so I'd be leaving out lots of gritty truth, perhaps thus tempting folks to move to a farm without realizing what hard work it really involves.

Of course, I could keep the blog private. For my eyes only. But somehow, that doesn't sound like much fun.

Oh well.

But all this imaginary-life-blogging got me to thinking. How often do we present a fake life before other people? Or hold back our real self instead, presenting something we believe is better? Just how many masks do we wear in one day?

Can we live a real life without being real with ourselves, and with God, first?

Just wondering. (I think I already know the answer to this one.)



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Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away...Philip K. Dick


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