Always Wreckin’ It

Poor Ralph. He just wants to be one of the good guys for once. He’s tired of his big, clumsy fists, tired of always hurting people, tired of wrecking everything.

Peter would have liked Ralph. Peter’s problem didn’t lie in his fists, but in his mouth. Always spouting off an irrational answer, making promises he can’t possibly keep, cutting people’s ears off, spewing poison before the cock crows…

Always wrecking things.

In the Toy household, we have enough faith in Disney to forego the theater outing and just buy their movies when they come on video. From Meet the Robinsons to Bolt to  Tangled, I’m not sure we’ve ever been disappointed.

Now, to be sure, Sarabeth didn’t care too much about our newest addition, Wreck it Ralph, which came on video last Tuesday. The video game setting threw her off, and she couldn’t connect with it. Until she decided to watch the second half… she gradually got sucked in and said, “I’m sure I’ll like it more when we watch it again next week.”

Yeah. That’s what we do here. When we find a fun new movie, we latch onto it for weeks at a time and watch it till we’re tired of it. Kids would fit in perfectly in our home, don’t you think??

So the story goes, that Ralph, this video game character was programmed to be a bad guy, always destroying the Nicelanders’ beautiful retro-style buildings. That’s what he was made to do. That was his lot is in life.

Destroy the nice people’s buildings, then go home to your junk pile until the next day.

We’re no different than Ralph in one regard.

Since the Fall, we too were programed to mess up, screw up, act out, lash out, trip up, slip up, break this, wreck that…

Calvin asked Hobbs of the famed Waterson comic strip, “Are people born good with bad tendencies, or born bad with good tendencies?”

Since sin squatted down and defecated on the world and since we are descendants of the first sinners, the answer is that we are all programmed to sin from the start. We are all programmed to wreck it.

If we’re not wrecking someone else’s heart, we’re wrecking our own.

But our friend Ralph, just like our brother Peter, wasn’t happy with his lot in life. He wanted something more. He wanted to be respected as a hero, and liked as a friend.

He wanted to be good.

And don’t we all? I mean, even the worst of us, at some point in our lives want to be good. Even the most flamboyant liberal and most money-grabbing conservative wants to be good somewhere deep inside.

But we’re incapable of that.

“Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am!” Romans 7:21-24

Most of us know this verse well. Many of us can resonate with it. The turmoil of ceaseless temptations, the slave driver of constant sin, the oppression of ousting God’s Word from our hearts!

We know this feeling! Ralph may not have voiced it, Peter might not have articulated it, but Paul gave words to our innermost groaning and shoved a bullhorn up to our hearts and exclaimed, “What a wretched man I am!”

Wretched. Always wrecking.

So what now? Just walk away with our heads down low, leaving behind a trail of wrecked hearts and broken promises?

“Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7 cont.

While we may constantly wreck things, remember in whom you are to put your trust:

“Behold, I make all things new.”  Revelation 21:1

Maranatha, Lord Jesus. Come fix this mess we’ve made of Your world.

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Does Satan Have You Tangled?

It doesn’t take much exploring on my blog to figure out that I’m a huge Disney fanatic. Even now, at 28 I still peek up the mouse’s sleeve to see what he’s got cooking in there. Especially of late, the Magic Kingdom has rarely disappointed.

It was a thrilling day in the Toy household when we discovered that the Disney studio was touching back with its roots, and combing out an old fairytale and curling it up with a new twist (puns intended). Of course, it was sad to see them change the name from Rapunzel to Tangled. Still, our faith was quickly restored once we saw it.

I want to talk to you today about the devil. Why? Because Tangled made me think a lot about the devil. In the movie, this witch of a woman claims to be Rapunzel’s loving mother. This evil, sinister – yet beautiful – being, wants nothing more  than to keep Rapunzel locked away in the highest room of the tallest tower … sorry, wrong movie … never to live the life she only imagines.

You don’t have to think too hard to make the connection. Satan – evil, sinister, beautiful – wants to lock us all away as well. But the thing about him that most people wouldn’t expect, is that he gives us exactly what we want (at least what we want on the surface). He leads us gently by the hand to our rooms where we can wallow in our anger, or lust after women on the computer, or watch TV all our life long when we’re not at work.

And while we’re engaged in these acts of absence, we’re convinced that we’ve got it made. Except, every now and then, something inside of us stirs. In the movie, Rapunzel wanted desperately to see what the glowing lights were that appeared on her birthday each year, but the witch refused her permission. Because the witch knew that if she discovered what those lights were, she would learn that she was the long-lost princess of the kingdom.

Satan knows that if you venture outside to help a neighbor, or go to church or even crack open a Bible, you’ll begin to discover who you are meant to be: a son or daughter of the Living King, Jesus Christ. So like the coward he is, the devil will throw everything he’s got at you to prevent you from snooping around: Food, sleep, 50 Shades of Grey, Facebook, Youtube, ANYTHING! He wants to keep you locked in this room of meaninglessness and isolation.

But every now and then – not always – Christ will beckon you to meet Him elsewhere, but only you can make the decision to leave your place of comfort and sin. Will you do that this week?

Rapunzel let out her hair to find freedom. We can let out a shout of praise that God has been faithful to provide us a way out of our meaningless existences and life of obedience to the father of lies.

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The High Art of Storytelling

So Brave comes out this week… finally! Sarabeth and I don’t go to the movies often, but it’s our annual tradition to go to each Pixar release. This is going to be a good weekend.

Now, as an avid Pixar fan, I do have a confession to make. For the most part, whenever I see a Pixar movie for the first time, I’m sort of… let down. But over time, with each viewing of a certain Pixar movie, I appreciate it more and more for what it is. I think it’s because their stories resonate and they age like fine wine. Ratatouille, for instance, didn’t keep me plastered to my seat with a big goofy grin the whole time. But it stuck with me days after viewing it. There were themes and deep issues that the movie provoked me to revisit. But I now consider it one of the finest films ever made. Wall-E bored me the first time I saw it. But after seeing it a few more times, and really digging into what the movie is trying to communicate (it’s not about going green), I now consider it one of the finest films as well.

It’s misleading when Disney markets Pixar films as being “the best comedy of the year,” because Pixar films aren’t just out to get a few laughs like competing animated movies. Heck, they’re not even trying to preach any sort of message. They’re just setting out to do what any good movie ought to do – tell an original and compelling story that is so effective that it will become a part of the viewer.

Story is to movies as location is to buildings. Story, story, story. Everything else is secondary. When the newborn Pixar Studios set out to make the world’s first computer-generated animated movie, the compliment they feared the most was, “The animation was astounding!” No. Hang the animation, as wonderful as it is. The guys at Pixar new they had truly succeeded with Toy Story because audiences around the globe absolutely loved the story.

This has been a good year for Sarabeth and me. I had been searching for an agent to represent my book, The Man in the Box, since 2009. I signed a contract with BlackWyrm Publishers a month ago: Three years and hundreds of rejections later. It was my passion to tell stories and my supportive wife that refused to let me give up. And every Pixar movie has played a role in teaching me how to tell a story.

Now, I know this isn’t anything like creating a cutting-edge feature film, nor will The Man in the Box make it to the New York Times bestseller list (though with your help, it could). But the point I’m trying to make here is this: We can do nothing great on our own. Did you know that Steve Jobs had the Pixar building built in such a way that if anyone wants to get from any point of the studio to another, you have to cross the lobby like everyone else? The reason for this seemingly obsessive idea was so that camaraderie would be encouraged and artists who wouldn’t normally talk to writers would bump into each other and exchange ideas. Unfortunately authors don’t have this advantage, and for the most part, we work alone. I have done everything I can to make my book, The Man in the Box as exciting, unpredictable and engaging as possible. But I know it’s still not perfect. So even as I write this there is an editor pouring over it somewhere. She has got her work cut out for her.

But we will be working together to make it the absolute best story we can possibly deliver to you. In the coming months I will be posting snippets of The Man in the Box for you to enjoy (or criticize). But I will need encouragement. I will need as many of my readers to join The Man in the Box Facebook page. There is little information about the story right now, but I will slowly and surely be revealing more and more. If you join, you will be alerted about contests to win free copies, favoritism for your blog, etc.

Oh, and any writers out there, I have included this list especially for you. I just came across it a few weeks ago, but I am convinced it is the purest piece of gold any writer could possibly attain in his possession. I don’t know if it’s official or not, but it is Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling. Do your readers a favor and follow these rules religiously. And go out and see Brave! We’ll discuss it next week.

#1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

#2: You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.

#3: Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.

#4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

#5: Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.

#6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?

#7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

#8: Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.

#9: When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.

#10: Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.

#11: Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.

#12: Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.

#13: Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.

#14: Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.

#15: If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.

#16: What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.

#17: No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.

#18: You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.

#19: Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

#20: Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?

#21: You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?

#22: What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

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A Sect of Supers Blending In?

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve sort of been composing a Pixar theme around my most recent movie discussions. You can check out Finding Nemo here and Monsters Inc. here. It’s for no other reason than building anticipation for Disney/Pixar’s newest movie Brave, coming out July 22, and I’m just going mad waiting for it. Poor Sarabeth has to put up with crazy/anxious me every spring until Pixar’s annual summer movie comes out, then we go see it and I find that it’s better than I expected and I rave and rant impatiently until it comes out on DVD in the fall. And the next spring the whole process starts all over again, but she is gracious and patent with me.

Whether it’s intentional or not, I feel like The Incredibles is just saturated with so many deep-rooted themes about the importance of family – in the traditional sense. If you’re having marriage problems, I seriously recommend watching this movie because the makers of this film really get people. (Watching a movie won’t solve your problems, but sometimes it can help identify what you’re really feeling and why you’re acting the way you are.) Then read Love and Respect  if you’re serious about getting your marriage back on track.

But we’re not going to focus on the marriage aspect of the film here. What strikes me during this movie is how Christians can relate to the Parr family in The Incredibles universe. You’ll recall how some people are born as Supers (people with super-human powers). Back in the 70′s they were revered by citizens all over, respected, honored. Then as lawsuits became more of a common practice in America, people who were injured while being saved by a Super would sue their hero, some even claiming that they didn’t even want to be saved. The Supers had no choice but to disappear, or blend in, and become average citizens, not using their super powers.

So let me ask you: Have you been blending in with the rest of the world? Have you been refusing to operate out of the conviction of the Holy Spirit? Maybe you’ve been hurt too many times by people telling you that they don’t want your Jesus. Maybe, you’ve thrown your hands up in surrender saying, “If they don’t care about their own soul, then why should I?” Well, the thing is, we’ve got to remember that anyone who isn’t alive in Christ is dead.

Literally, spiritually dead. So, how can a corpse care for himself? That is why we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to shine the light on them and let the Holy Spirit do His work. Now, we cannot bring people to life, but God can. We are just the messengers, or the nurses in the great operating room of life, if you will. When the doctor asks for a q-tip, we bring the doctor a q-tip. In the same way, when the Holy Spirit beckons us to talk to the difficult customer in a loving, God-honoring way, we must do just that, and shine the light of Jesus in their direction so that the Holy Spirit has an advantage to work on their heart. (Not that the Holy Spirit is dependant on us to do His work in any way; think of it as a father allowing his son to help change the oil in the car, even if he doesn’t quite know how.)

Brothers and sisters, we have been empowered to do a work that is unique from anyone else in the world, but the world doesn’t want us doing that work. Jesus predicted this. He said that the world will hate you (but it’s really hating Him). The world will stop at nothing to silence us, and make us blend in with the rest of the fallen human race. Go to work, get your work done, come home, and do it all again the next day.

Don’t you get it? That’s the kind of mundane meaningless existence the world is calling us to! That, and do whatever you please when you’re not punched in on the clock. But God has called us to live a much better, more purposeful, more dangerous kind of life. He is calling us to engage in warfare! We are to be battling the demons that are keeping the caskets locked on your co-worker’s hearts and whispering lies to your unsaved friends. We are to be battling them daily, all the while keeping their filthy claws out of our own lives.

We must not pull back from the War and go about our lives as though it didn’t exist, and that we are here simply to just live and let live. Engage in the battle. It may not be fighting giant robots on tropical islands, but it may be learning to open back up the communication lines between you and your spouse, or becoming more involved in your kids’ lives. Helen Parr imparts this wisdom to her daughter: “Your identity is your most valuable possession. Protect it.”

If you’re a true Christian, your identity is in Christ Jesus. You must protect that, and live like that is true. You will be noticed, and people will call you out on being a Christian because you’re different from everyone else. But that is a very good thing – that is exactly what God wants! Because what better opportunity to enter the battleground and share the Gospel with them so that you can be a part of possibly escorting that person to the Gates of Heaven?

Don’t squelch the powers God has given you in His name. Use your gifts, your talents, your resources in order to bring honor and glory to Him. Blending in is exactly what the enemy wants us to do. Not seeing our family as a great adventure is part of our enemy’s grant scheme. Don’t give in. Stay strong, and persevere. Step onto the battleground, reveal your identity, and fight the good fight.

The video is corny, but here’s a song I tend to listen to when I need to be reminded that we are fighting in a war. It’s featured at the end of Prince Caspian, and it brings me to tears every time: The Call

Keep on eye on The Incredibles director Brad Bird.

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Adopted for Life by Dr. Russell D. Moore

One of my earlier posts from a couple of months ago was about this book, Adopted for Life by Russell D. Moore. Since I have a few more followers than I did then, I would like to take a moment to re-share this valuable piece of work with everyone.

This book is not about navigating your way through the adoption process, nor does it provide a list of resources. Adopted for Life tells the story of how adoption is linked with the Gospel and how important and vital it is for our families and our churches to be a part of it.

Here are a couple of insights from the first chapter entitled, “Adoption, Jesus, and You: Why You Should Read This Book, Especially if You Don’t Want to”:

“Not everyone is called to adopt. No one wants parents who adopt children out of the same sense of duty with which they may give to the building fund for the new church gymnasium. But all of us have a stake in the adoption issue, because Jesus does. He is the one who tells us his Father is also ‘Father to the fatherless’ (Ps. 68:5). He is the one who insists on calling ‘the least of these’ his ‘brothers’ (Matt. 25:40) and who tells us that the first time we hear his voice, he will be asking us if we did the same.”

I challenge each and every person to read this book. Whether you’re considering adoption or not, and whether you’re even a Christ follower or not. It will open up a world of insight concerning the passionate, intimate work of God in the lives of His children. And it’s practical. It will challenge you to view adoption, not as some weird quirky thing celebrities do to enhance their fame, but as an absolute requirement in the Christian life (whether that means to adopt, to foster, give money to the cause, or just bring an adoptive family a meal).

“This book isn’t, first of all, a theological treatise on adoption in the abstract, although I hope it helps some of us to see how adoption pictures something true about our God and his ways. This book isn’t primarily a book about the practical joys and challenges of adopting children, although I hope it helps many more moms and dads to know firsthand something of why I am wiping away tears as I type this right now. Ultimately, this book isn’t really about adoption at all. It’s just what my [adopted] son Timothy probably would tell you it is about, if you asked him. It’s about Jesus.”

Be sure to visit Dr. Moore’s blog. You can find the link to order his book on the right side of this page.

And don’t forget to check back here tomorrow as we’ll be taking a look at another Pixar movie that can have a bigger impact on our cultural thinking than what meets the eye.

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Finding… You!

You know that desert island game? One of the questions is, what three movies would you take with you if you were stranded on a desert island. For me, Finding Nemo would be one of them. Not only because it features some of the most dazzling sights, or features the most beautiful music, or because it’s just down-right hysterical between moments of tenderness and warmth, but the story is just so chock-full of treasure and richness. I can’t wait to see  this film as a father – I already get choked up as is. But watching this jewel of a film, I can’t help but recall how we were once lost, like Nemo, taken captive by the world and imprisoned in this little fish tank we call the flesh. Yet, we’re hopeful that someone is out there looking for us, seeking us out. Maybe a future spouse, or a parent who abandoned us years ago, or just maybe… something bigger.

We wonder sometimes, does God even care about me? He answers that question through the Gospel – the story of Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Marlin, the heart-broken fish-father swims across the ocean and encounters sharks, deadly jellyfish, whales, and vortexes of terror. That’s a lot for  little guy to go through. But he’s just that desperate to find his son, no matter what the odds are. In turn, God risked the most terrifying objection of all by sending Jesus to die for us – rejection. And He knew most people would reject Him, and that even His own children would reject Him every day. But that didn’t stop Jesus from battling the forces of evil, through temptations of the flesh, the taunting of demons, and the wiles of the world, encountering the dismal horrors of death, and facing off with the prince of this dark, dark world. And He did it all for you.

In the meantime, like Nemo, we’re waiting for something – or someone – to come rescue us from this tank-sized life we’re living. We feel like there’s no way out. Any place we turn we run into a wall. But God, in His great sovereignty provides us with people to come alongside us and encourage us, and take on the journey by our side. Just like Gil, the surrogate  father-figure, prompts Nemo to do the hard thing by stopping up the filter, God puts people in our lives to spur us on to focus on the hope that lies before those who put their faith only in Jesus Christ. And sometimes that’s hard to do, especially in the face of utter hopelessness. When we just want to wallow in our self-pity and give up all together, someone might come along and tell us to snap out of it, and to keep our eyes fixed on what is to come.

Jesus came for us once, and He’s coming for us again. He’s already defeated the forces of evil that we are so tired of. You may be tired of waiting for the new step in your life, or maybe you’re weary of fighting temptation and you just want to give in. Or maybe you’ve lost the excitement of Heaven to come, or you’ve given up praying for your lost co-workers. Take heart, and know that Jesus is coming for you if you have been adopted into the family of God. And when He does, He’ll take you home to be greeted by your Father and He’ll open up a whole new world for you to explore and worship Him for eternity. A world quite larger than the ocean itself.

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:6-7

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Don’t Fear the Children

So one thing you’ll quickly learn about me is that I’m a huge Pixar/Disney fan. I’ve been watching Monsters Inc. in segments this past week and I can’t help but think that we’re just as blind and ignorant as the monsters in the movie.

In case you haven’t seen it, the idea is that the monsters in Monstropolis get their electrical energy by kids’ screams. The way they get those is by portable doors that are brought to the monsters which leads into every child’s closet. The monsters then come out of the closet and scare kids, capturing their screams, thus supplying energy to Monstropolis. However, the monsters have been brainwashed into thinking that the children are dangerous and even deadly. So what is a monster’s greatest fear? Children!

But we’re not much brighter. We fear man. We clamor for man’s approval and stop at nothing to gain the respect of the masses. And if we’re honest with ourselves, on our worst days, we’d rather be judged by God than by our bosses. This is the wrong way of living. Jesus is very clear in Matthew 10:28: “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.”

We’re so anxious to please others and remain certain not to offend ignorant people with the Gospel, but we’d much rather offend the One who commanded us to do just that! Think about it. There are plenty of reasons why we don’t witness the way we ought. Laziness and carelessness may be at the top of the list, but fear is most certainly right up there. Why won’t you witness to your boss? Because you’re afraid of getting fired. Why won’t you witness to your neighbor? Because you’re afraid of making future front yard conversations terse and awkward.

Remember. These people who do not know the Gospel are as harmless as a child in Monster Land. You have the Holy Spirit fighting with you, and enabling you to carry on the task. And don’t loose sight of who the real enemy is: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).

Don’t be like the monsters who are scared of little children. Know who your real enemy is and realize the potential – through Christ – they’re keeping you from. And if you haven’t seen Monsters Inc., you might want to check it out before the Prequel comes out in the next year or so. It’ll be big.