A Parallel Universe

I remember enjoying science fiction as a boy.  Many of the themes took reality as we know it and twisted it, to create a different world with an exciting and dangerous set of new challenges and characters.  It occurred to me that as we walk through our days there really are two parallel universes running alongside one another.  The natural world lies on the surface.  It is the one we immediately sense and that commands our attention, without effort.  The natural world is experienced through the five senses and is so constantly present that it can seem to be the only world.  But there is a parallel universe.  We know it through some of the more invisible senses that are built into our design: our thoughts, our heart attitudes, our inner motives.  It is in this "unseen" universe that the important matters of life are settled.  Here we shape values, find our identity and discover the reality of the God who is spirit and truth.  The natural world can mask this "inner world" so much that we can become convinced the outer world is really all that matters, with its wealth, fame and position as the ultimate goals (after all, what do we see every day...and what is our news every day?).  Then the natural universe shapes our inner universe.  I was reminded that we need to live inside out.  We need to make our ultimate goals the ultimate bests that are available within the inner universe:  love, kindness and contentment.  Then I realized this just wasn't possible in light of the constant presence of the outer world....unless I leaned more on the Lord I have met in my inner world.  Of course I realized that there really is only one universe and that the one Lord of all fashioned both...but I must purpose to develop the inner person so the outer world doesn't do the developing for me!   Ephesians 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man   blessings, Rob Smith