Illusionist and Dissillusionist

“ILLUSION implies a false ascribing of reality based on what one sees or imagines” (M&W Dictionary)

In my writing, my creativity has a head-on collision with English grammar and spelling. Most times, I accede submitting to the “rules,” but I don’t like it. New words come from somewhere, so why not me? My grammar check goes into convulsions, underscoring a red saw-tooth line when I write dissillusionist. To take away an illusion is to “dis” the illusion. Therefore, the agent in doing that is a “dissillusionist.” That sounds reasonable to me.

I am delusional, thinking that I can just conjure up a word, and Merriam Webster Dictionary and Grammarly will not try to disillusion me – take away my illusion. So, usually, I just put quotation marks on my illusional creativity and let it ride.

I bring this up because I had a phone conversation with a friend yesterday who has recently had a life-changing spiritual awakening and subsequent obedience to what he received. The vices that tempt him and the deepening sensitivity to the violent evils around him have prompted a heart-felt question; “Why does God put his people in the middle of this moral debauchery we live in?” “Why doesn’t God do anything about all the Godless wickedness that makes life so miserable (for me)?

The short answer is, He has. It’s what He calls the Gospel, Good News. That Good News is that Jesus has made a way for corrupted creation to recreate into a new and permanent connection with their Creator, God. If God were to remove all the vice, there would be no people, especially me and probably you.

Of course, there is far more to this transformation than that simple statement, but that’s the shortest way I know to say it.

Humans are stuck in an illusion of their own making, reasoning, closed-loop thinking. We are illusionists! We construct from the pool of our experiences, desires, and need for acceptance by other humans an illusion of what life should be like. Always at the center of that construction is the bedrock confidence that we are true to our convictions. What contradictions that are in us we have honed to be acceptable and reasonable and tolerated by God! Human trust is an illusion!

God, however, is not tolerant at all; humans were created in His image, and He never stops graciously working at restoring His creation to that image. Therefore, our God, Yahweh, is a “disillusionist!” He is taking away our illusions of the life He invented and distributed to humans.

Listen to the Apostle John make an astounding assertion in chapter 8 of his Gospel; “Jesus, however, would not entrust himself to them, since he knew them all and because he did not need anyone to testify about man; for he himself knew what was in man.” (vv24-25)

The Man/God, Jesus, had no illusional conceptions of humans yet loved and hung out with those who were illusioned. The work of removing humanity’s illusions with Truth is no easy task. It’s so tough to get them to accept they are delusional. It is not uncommon that humans shun God’s revealed Truth in preference for their illusion truth. It’s hard to confess we are wrong. And even harder to admit He is right.

Photo – Full moon on the Florida Gulf coast.