If you know me well, I'm sure you realize that I am a total Disney classics nerd. Yeah, I'm talking Cinderella, Peter Pan, Pocahontas, Lady and the Tramp, Bambi, Aladdin, The Sword in the Stone, Fox and the Hound, Dumbo, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast... etc, etc... I could go on and on.
I'm sure you can imagine my excitement when I heard they were "re-releasing" Walt Disney's "The Lion King" into theaters! I wanted to go so bad, I mean come-on, how fun would it be singing along to "Hakuna Matata" and "Can you feel the love tonight?" on the big screen. I thought it'd be pretty epic. Unfortunately I realized on a college student budget this wasn't exactly a wise idea. I mean on the one hand you're like "OH MY WORD! IT'S THE LION KING!!" and on the other hand your like "Oh, The Lion King? I've seen that movie a billion times..." So when I got to North Carolina to be with my family for fall break, you can bet-ya that I dug through our trunk full of VHS Disney movies at home and spent one evening watching "The Lion King". I forgot how much I love that movie! lol.
Not going to lie, now that I'm older when I watch these types of movies there is a part of me that relives my childhood... Yet, the adult in me tries to pull a life lesson from the films that can still relate to my life now as an adult. Guess what? I made an amazing discovery!
I think part of it may have to do with the fact when I went to church with my family this past weekend the pastor was talking about how lots of people in the world talk about this cliche idea of "becoming the person God wants me to be". Pastor Derwin said, "that is so wrong! We don't need to "become" anyone. God has already made us into the person He wants us to be... All that has to happen is that we need to start LIVING like the person we already are, in Christ."
I was taken aback by these words. I guess I've always had this mindset of this "other person" I would transform into when I was strong in my faith and lived like Jesus. Yet, the truth is that I already am the person God wants me to be, I just need to remember who God created me to be and live... I mean really live... like who I already am in Christ. At first, I wasn't sure if that really made any sense at all, so imagine my surprise when I'm watching "The Lion King" late last night and God reveals --- not only Himself, but also myself, in a new and amazing way to me:
Please watch the clip below:
"You are more then what you have become." I get chills every time...
The first thing that stuck out to me about this scene is when Rafiki says to Simba, "You see, he lives in you." As Christians on this earth aren't we supposed to be reflecting God's love and light into all the world? Jesus lives in us and that changes everything. We are a reflection of Christ wherever we are.
The second thing that stuck out to me in this clip is Mufasa telling Simba, "Remember who you are." Simba is the son of a great King, his father no longer on earth has left Simba a legacy and destiny that he expects Simba to fulfill. Like Simba, when we accept Christ into our hearts we too are the sons and daughters of The Great King. We cannot forget who we are in Christ. We are God's children, sent out into the world as ambassadors for Christ. Just like "Pride Rock" is overtaken by the cruel and evil Scar, there is an evil power that rules over the our world. Satan, "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). We are not to stand by and let people be taken in by the hatred and malice of the devil. Meanwhile... we cannot let fear ruin who we are in Christ. No evil power, no sin, no amount of miles can ever change the fact that we are God's chosen children! This great God, a Great King is our protector and our Father. Isaiah 31:4 says God will defend His people like a lion: "Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof."
So my Christian friend, "REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!" You are who God created you to be, you have nothing to fear, nothing to hide from... You have the strength of The Great King reflecting through you as you walk through life. "He lives in you."