At the risk of sacrificing every last ounce of my manhood, can I just say how much I wish life was like a Disney Cartoon? Think about it. At any given moment you could bust into a random song which perfectly articulates everything you're feeling in a such an emotional and melodic way, that every person in your town will join in, creating a rambunctious song and dance sure to make it's way straight to the top of the soundtrack charts, and at just the right moment, the dream of your life will break into a duet with you, even though neither of you have ever heard the song before and couldn't possibly know what words or notes come next. Plus, you'd get a super cool animal companion that always cheers you up and somehow communicates well enough with humans to scrounge up your friends when you've fallen in trouble. In fact, about the only downer to being in a Disney film is that you'd have some crazy aunt or uncle or step mom that wants to make your life miserable until ultimately deciding one day to just bump you off. A bummer for sure, but eventually you'll defeat them thanks to the help of your fairy-god-whatever, so it's all good because that's exactly what "Happily Ever After" means; at the end of all those struggles and trials, all ends well for the rest of your life. (Or until a rash of non-hits by the studio forces them to make a sequel and thus add drama to your life one more time.)
Though it would be an interesting social experiment to see how many people would join you in a spontaneous song and dance in the middle of the mall, for those of us not blessed with a Disney voice, that's not a real viable option. The optimism, genuine nature, kindness, and dedication always carried by the lead characters, who often find themselves in very unenviable positions (picked on, disrespected, treated lowly, given all the worst chores, locked up, and denied even some of the most basic privileges), and even loyalty to those who are causing their woes, is one to be admired and is far more obtainable. And though that joy seems almost unreal in light of where they're at, it's not if you realize that it stems from one very simple thing, a dream. They always have an unquenchable hope of one day attaining some bigger purpose, of living a life where they've left their current trials behind and are living happily ever after.
As Christians, we're past the part of our troubled pasts; we buried that part of our life in the waters of baptism. Our dreams of living Happily Ever After have begun, having been given the gift eternal life with only the housing part of that promise still to come. Yes, our "crazy uncle", played so demonically by Satan, still envies our position and wants to get his kicks in where he can. Unfortunately for him, the part of the movie where the hero, epically filled by Jesus, seems to have been defeated, only be raised from the dead, slay the villain, and conquer death and sin once and for all, ushering in new life and eternal promises, has already happened. And with the help of our "magic ferry-whatever", which the Holy Spirit wonderfully fills, we can continue to live in service of the Great King, our Awesome God, in the epilogue of the film.
The climax is over. Satan has lost. Our woes of being trapped by an unappreciative and suppressive world are through. So sing those songs because you're not just dreaming the dream, you're living a part of it. I guess life's more like a Disney cartoon than I thought.
Brett "Now that I'm grown I eat 5 dozen eggs, and I'm roughly the size of a baaaarrge!" Hibbler
All I can say is "Woohoo!! Thanks for such an encouraging "C"!!!!
ReplyDeleteVery good "C" :) Also proof that someone got to see 'Tangled' this weekend??
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