Signs There is Something More

Have you ever felt there must be more than this life?  That there seems to be a bigger purpose to existence?  There are signs throughout life that seem to suggest there is something more than just our daily rituals, more than just birth, life and death.  This idea is explored in The Truman Show (1998) which provides a good opportunity to look at what it means for us.

Truman finds the steps to freedom.

In The Truman Show, Truman Burbank is the first man born live on reality TV and grows up in a completely fabricated world, watched on by the millions outside his fictional home.  The film narrates the moment when he finally begins to realise all is not as it seems and there is something more to the world he knows.

A studio lamp falls from the sky, a lift opens to reveal backstage and he sees his dead father in the street (his father was written out previously and had smuggled himself back into the set to be reunited).  He has a longing to know more to life and finally fulfills his longing at the climax of the film.

There are signs all over the world we live in telling us there is something more.  Psalm 19 in the Bible says 'The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaim His handiwork'.  The Bible says that it is in fact the Creator of the world that is trying to get through to tell us about Himself!

What's called God's general revelation shows that God wants to be known: the vastness, the beauty, the complexity of life all points to Him.  Paul talks of this in his letter to the Romans (1:20): 'His invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made'.

God has gone further, also giving a special revelation through becoming a man Himself. In Jesus God came to this world to talk to us directly.  Though Jesus is no longer here, God has also left special communication in the Bible and we can find out about it even today.

When Jesus was around, he said 'If you abide in my word you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free' (John 8:31-32).  The signs God has used to point to there being something more will set us free to the knowledge of reality.  Just as the small signs led Truman to discovering the world outside his fictional home, God communicates in a number of ways to allow us to discover a whole life after the one we currently live; something more.

Are you going to carry on each day, doing your daily ritual, acting as if there is nothing more to this life? Or will you take notice of the signs of something more, listen to God Himself and be set free into an eternal life with Him?

This was taken from a gospel talk I wrote for the Youth Group at TCM Baptist Church.  Also see Jared Wilson's article for The Gospel Coalition.