I learned the truth when I was about 6-years-old.

I was watching a video in the bedroom while my parents had friends over. My father came in and he just couldn’t take it anymore.

He had to tell me the truth – the truth about wrestling.

“You know it’s fake, right? It’s all planned out and scripted,” he told me about the hulking superstars I had recently become obsessed with.

Funny, though. The revelation didn’t bother me. Even at a young age, I simply shrugged and went back to watching Randy Savage drop elbows.

I don’t completely know why finding out wrestling is fake didn’t phase me. I guess I just accepted wrestling as the same sort of entertainment as comic books and Ninja Turtles. I knew those weren’t real either, so wrestling immediately became for me the same type of entertainment. And I’ve been a diehard fan ever since.

For over 20 years now I have been in love with something completely fake. I think being able to love something fake has helped me adjust to the world.

I’ve never understood why people always like to point out wrestling in particular is fake. I feel like the people on the newest Geico commercials – “Uh-huh, everybody knows that.” I mean, you wouldn’t walk up to someone in the movie theater as they’re watching “Catching Fire” and say, “You know The Hunger Games is fake, right?”

In fact, I don’t think there’s a problem with loving fake things, as long as you know they are fake. The problem comes when you believe a fake thing is real.

I’ve learned throughout my short life that just about everything in this world is fake in one way or another. Sports are fake. TV shows are fake. Money is fake. Relationships are fake. Romance is fake. People are fake.

I say “Fake” in the sense that these things are imperfect. They are not life-giving. You cannot put your eternal hopes in any of these things.

What I’ve found in life to be true is this: The only eternal truth in this world is God.

When relationships have ended, when entertainments have failed to satisfy, when everything else falls apart, God has remained true to me.

So I’ve learned to stop expecting fake things to fill me up. In the same way I still love wrestling for all the entertainment it brings me, I still love my hobbies like running and writing for all they offer me. I still love to watch football and baseball. I still love people for who they are and the friendships and love they give to me.

I just recognize none of these things will sustain me. Only God can do that. So I don’t let my heart get broken when they disappoint me and I get reminded of their imperfections.

When the women came to Jesus’s tomb after he had been resurrected, two men in dazzling clothes appeared to them. The women were perplexed as to where Jesus was. The two men said to them, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” (Luke 24)

I think Jesus wonders why we look for life from dead, fake things. I think He wonders why we expect the things of this world – music, food, hobbies, relationships – to fulfill us.

In the end all the things of this world are ultimately fake. They cannot sustain us. They cannot redeem us. They cannot complete us.

So go ahead and love fake things for what they are and the many joys they offer. Just don’t believe in them. Don’t build your life around them.

Recognize there is only One True Reality which can satisfy the wants of your heart. Stop looking for the living among the dead.

Have you ever found yourself looking for the living among the dead? What are the fake things you love? When did you learn wrestling was fake?