6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.  8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

It appears that people in our society are more into vicarious living than ever before - living out our lives through others and empathetically feeling what they experience..  As parents, it's not hard to live our lives through our children. You don't have to be an athlete any more, we have fantasy football, XBOX FIFA, boxing pay-per-view, etc. - a new kind of vicarious living through avatars.  However, something about vicarious living feels wrong, a little seems ok but any more than a dabble and it feels inauthentic and simply wrong...well because it is.  When we are born again, we become a completely different entity.  We get a new heart and our old identity is "buried with him (Christ)."   Out of the ashes, a new identity arises with Christ from the dead (tethered indentify of one unit).  We are called to live out our own lives in Christ with fellow believers now.  However, we keep getting pulled to vicarious living through the flesh .  We keep slipping back into the old "avatar" self.  We have to remember that Christ set us free from the Matrix.  We are called to Zion now and live as "freed" people - He died to give us this life.  We are the people of Zion - not of the Matrix.