Man, oh man, I can still remember when Disney’s Madagascar came out and my family went to watch it together. A short visit to the cinema proved the only glue needed for half of the script to stick in both me and my sister’s heads. We bought the DVD. The whole family learnt the words (involuntarily for the most part –because we had an under-10-year-old in the house at that time) and we quoted them at the dinner table for my dad, who enjoys live comedy much more than the televised kind.
Turns out that Madagascar is probably one of the most consistently quotable animations of all time, and while there are a few rivals – I’m thinking of Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Shrek, and Kung-Fu Panda 1 and 3 – none come close to the level of genius dialogue in that movie.
I rate most “talking animal” animations quite critically, hence my lack of enthusiasm to watch Disney’s Zootopia (2016). But again, I have sisters who love these things and so this last weekend we all gathered to check it out.
The opening scenes won me over. Although there isn’t much quotable banter, the dialogue, and most importantly, the message, rings very strongly throughout the whole movie.
The story is about Judy, a rabbit that dreams of being a cop in the big city, Zootopia. She overcomes a ton of challenges as a child and as a young adult and becomes the first mammal to become a cop under the mayor’s mammal inclusion programme, only to face more challenges.
Judy’s unyielding resilience is endearing, and we follow her through a journey that could make or break her after the case that she is given (the seemingly most insignificant one) becomes the biggest and toughest to crack.
There are huge lessons throughout the film that are poignantly relevant for all ages. This includes subjects like knowing your identity, perseverance, fighting prejudice, and faith.
It’s crazy, because I feel that, again, the message of faith is what Jesus wanted to tell me – loud and clear!
Check out this passage about faith in the Bible:
“It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before… It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as an inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going.” – (Hebrews 11:7-8)
We have so many seasons in our lives: Ones where we are fully dependent; ones where we are hanging on but also want to do it by ourselves; ones where we want to show that we are fiercely independent; and ones where we see the value in calling for help. I’m a fully grown young adult and I can still go through all of those in a week, almost always ending in the same place – seeing my very real need for God.
Judy’s mum (Mother Rabbit) said something that stayed with me when trying to convince Judy not to make a move towards her dream to become a cop: “That’s the beauty of complacency,” she said, “You almost never have to get hurt.”
After all I’ve been through in my short life, I’m happy to admit that sincerely seeking God in the way of “your whole life” will never leave you disappointed. There are so many things that push us into complacency and make us too scared to ever take a step. Fear does that – it paralyzes a person, if that’s what you’re feeding yourself on.
I’m convinced that Judy made it because she continuously fed her spirit with positive words. Now what if we can do one better? What if we could continuously feed our spirits on everything that God says about us and about our futures? What if we could live for what He sees in us – in the future rather than what we see in ourselves and our circumstances right now? Author C.S Lewis said: “God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He is the fuel our spirits were to burn, or the food our spirits were to feed on.”
All we need is our need. That’s all that is needed to qualify each of us to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit to achieve everything that God made us to be. God is not and has never been restricted in relation to our lives, and yet we live with the misconception that His power is reserved for “special people,” or, “more holy people” and so we try and do it on our own!
Again, the primary reason for our need and inadequacy is because God designed us to have an appetite that can only be satisfied by Him – like the woman at the well that had had five husbands and then met with Jesus who showed her her need and gave her something (living water) that filled her immediately!
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