The real entry.

How real exactly are reality TV shows. Pretty certain you've thot of that. Reality TV is NOT real. Reality TV is in no way what you see on TV. Reality TV is what you see on God's TV screen.

I'd like to think He's beside a whole stack of videotapes of your life, piling so high up you can't see the top. "Gabriel, the 97, 476th hour of Desmond's life please. ( That's approx my 11th year on the earth btw) I think it's the 77th tape from the right on the 35th shelf in the 'D' section. Thank you, and bring more popcorn!! Elijah says he wants a diet coke too..."

Then an angel glides up past the screen and to amongst the clouds and disappears. In seconds he reappears excitedly flying back to God, with popcorn and coke and other tidbits, and he sits by God and they continue watching the tapes. Laughing in love, tearing at times I failed God, cheering on as I was battling a stronghold and jumping at a victory I won.

Reality for most of us is NOT in a jungle with no proper sewage system and no water supply and having to slaughter a chiken or cow for food. It may be for someone living there by default, but its not for us.

Our reality TV shoot is in Singapore, with exams, with work, with lousy teachers, with good teachers, with bad bosses and caring ones. Our reality TV program takes place in our families when we scream at them or serve them iced-water, when we clear the house or mess our rooms.

Our reality is simply where God places us in. My reality is where God has ordained for me to be.

Here I am on the other side of the radio
Wonderin' why I'm here and why anybody cares what I say
No I'm not a better man because I'm singing the songs on the radio
'Cause we're all the same
At the end of the day

Now I imagine you on the other side of the radio
Doing your homework or driving with your windows down on the freeway
I see you tapping the wheel
I see you bobbing your head to the radio
Oh and it makes my day
To see that smile on your face
And in some small way, I remember my place

'Cause its you and me singing the same song right now
Maybe this'll bring us together some how
Maybe there's a million people all singing along
Somebody started thinking about the third line
And maybe someone's saying a prayer for the first time
And that's enough reason to keep me singing my song
Singing my songs on the other side of the radio

Crank up the volume and sing at the top of your lungs with the radio
Tune it in to some good news and laughing along with the DJ
We're changing somebody's world from the other side of the radio
Oh and it makes my day
To see that smile on your face
And in some small way, I'll remember my place

-- Chris Rice, The Other side of the Radio

Sorta like a reality thing. Put up this song cos i was just listening to it as i blogged. Esther Foong and I were wondering what this song meant some time ago. Elvin said it was a song bout this guy hearing his own song on the radio. And he is wondering how many other people are singing it along with him and the radio. Like they all have different realities but they are bounded by one song. Esther and I just gave him the huh, no meaning look. But now i think i get Mr Rice. Maybe he realised we all have different realities. But we're bounded by one thing -- God's great love and commission.