Real Life: Fantasies and Tragedies

Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”
Matthew 18: 21-22


I often feel that my life is lived with one foot in a Fantasy and the other in some Greek Tragedy. On the other hand, as I read Fantasies, this is how the characters usually see their own lives. After all, Fantasies do not simply show us the “magical” side of life but, rather, a wider and deeper view of reality, which includes the reality that things and people don’t always turn up sprinkled with gold dust.

In Fantasies

The Bad Guys win some battles
Good people suffer; Bad Guys prosper
The Hero sometimes finds himself on the wrong path
The Heroine is not always all that loveable or beautiful

The classic Fantasies reflect a brutally honest portrayal of Real Life, yet they do so by placing Real Life in a larger frame: a Fantastic Adventure.

Yes, there are tragedies in The Adventure.

Yes, some battles are lost.

Yes, the Hero sometimes says “yes” when he should have said “no.”

Yes, the Heroine may behave more like a Dragon than a Princess

However, the larger tragedy occurs when I forget that The Adventure is still there to be lived, to seek after, and to experience. I can choose to use the tragedy as a means for growth, or I can choose to allow it end my part in The Adventure.

Defeats are inevitable.
He gets picked off,
She falls down,
They blow it.
We simply are not going to win every battle.

The question then is, do we get back up and continue The Quest and keep living The Adventure, transforming defeat into wisdom and humility, preparing us for future victories, or do we surrender, resign and give up? In other words, do I allow the failure to define me or motivate me to become a better man?

Not all that far into the Greatest Adventure of All Time, Simon Peter was picked off: he lied, he denied, he failed … three times, big time, just as he had been warned by Christ Himself. He probably even considered ending his Quest as Judas had just done; after all what hope is there when you have denied with curses the Alpha and Omega of all Quests? However, the most amazing thing occurred. While speaking with the women who first saw the resurrected Christ, He told them to go tell His disciples, “and Peter,” that He had risen from the dead.

Why “and Peter”? Because Jesus knew that Peter would be believing and feeling that this was one defeat that could not be reversed, not be forgiven … and Peter needed to get back into The Game, return to The Quest, and retake his place in The Greatest Story Ever Told. As he had been repeatedly told and shown by Christ, God is the God of Second Chances. No … that’s not it … God is the God of Seventy Times Seven Chances.

Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2008