Dear Beloved of Trinity,
Recently, I was invited to speak at a conference. My presentation was titled In Search of Me: The Quest for an Authentic Life. As I neared the end of my talk, I referenced an old Coca- Cola jingle from the 1970s. It’s the real thing. The way it should be. What the world wants to see. It’s the real thing. That slogan still lingers—because it speaks to a deep human longing. We long for something real.
In our time, with the rise of artificial intelligence and its seemingly limitless ability to generate nearly anything—images, voices, even entire realities—the line between what is real and what is manufactured is getting harder and harder to see.
We live in a world of curated lives, projected images, and polished personas. Promises are made, truths are proclaimed, and yet so often, we’re left disillusioned, discovering that what we thought was real was just an illusion. A bait-and-switch. Smoke and mirrors.
Even in our own lives, we often fall into the same trap—constructing versions of ourselves that are more successful, more secure, more admired than who we really are. We chase dreams, accumulate things, wear labels… and yet deep down, so much of it feels hollow.
John Mabry, in his book Growing into God: A Beginner’s Guide to Christian Mysticism, writes:
“When the seed of God is planted in you, when you are given a glimpse of the Real, when you have seen what is essential and what is dross, how will your life change?”
That’s the question: What happens when we encounter something real?
We need truth, not performance.
We need beauty, not glamour.
We need hope, not empty promises.
We need love, not fleeting infatuation.
And we are offered all of that—not in a product, not in a program, but in the Gospel of Jesus Christ - The Real One.
When you’ve encountered Him—when you’ve truly experienced what is real—everything else begins to pale in comparison. You start to see the emptiness of the imposters.
Because … the real thing,
Is … the way it should be.
Is … what the world wants to see.
Christ is the real thing!
Peace and Blessings,
Paul+