Captain Hook Versus Peter Pan and
Tinker Bell!
Here are my
observations about us people so far.
We start out one way and end up another only to be compelled to seek out
and go back to where we started. Our
change isn’t just crows feet and gray hair, unless you color it, no one really
knows how much gray you have, not even ourselves but our thoughts and ways
about life change. Youth seems to
bring a natural humility and innocence to it but then the worries of the world
come along and we become anxious and “try” to be self-sufficient. When Jesus attempts to teach us about
being child-like He is trying to bring us to a place of not worrying and attaining
the humility and trust of a child.
The only difference is that we have much more to worry about and therefore
we have tons more to give up and trust God for. Our faith is essential to God
and He will do anything to help us enter into His “eternal riches and glory.” For the sake of this metaphor though
we’ll call it “Never, Never Land.” This seems to be the Dichotomy of the spiritual freedom
that some of us have tasted, some have never known and the really mature
spiritual ones have learned to walk and stay in the place of child-like
humility. There is an amazing rest
here for the ones who are so tired and worn out with all their own self-sufficiency
and striving. It seems to be
harder for the ones like Peter, who had been there but then got caught up in
fear and doubt and the worries of the world. Why is it always Peter?!!!
In the movie,
Hook, where Peter Pan returns, reminds us of the part of the change that we want
and should try to resist. “I’m never
growing up!” says Peter Pan. The
catch 22 is that getting older is inevitable as we have more to worry about and
the more we are pushed passed our own limitations the more we have to give up
and trust a so called good God for. This is not an easy feat as we can see in the
metaphorical movie script. It’s
hard to imagine some people who can handle so much on their own. For some of us it doesn’t take much stress
to force us to our knees and call out for help but for others it seems that
they can spend all their lives in a type of hell/pride and self-sufficiency
just like Captain Hook! This place
is exhausting for some of us to live their too terribly long and at some point
we break down and finally come to the end of our own resources and cry out for
help like a child or let’s say we become like Peter Pan again. This is a sign
of true humility and strength versus pride and self-sufficiency, not to be
confused with being a victim, which is just more self-sufficiency trying to disguise
its self in a false humility. This
seems to be a layer-by-layer process opposed to a onetime deal or experience
with God. Tinker-Bell is the Spiritual metaphor that can lead us to
freedom. Obviously this blog is
not intended to make us believers of fairies but maybe they do exist when we’re
on our summer hikes, giggling in the trees?
Anyway the story about Peter Pan is a great lesson and
reminder for us to try and believe.
Believe what? The story never
really conveys the “What” but yet in the movie, Captain Hook The Return Of
Peter Pan, reveals what ends up motivating Peter is the fear of losing his
children. This seems to do it
every time. The motivation of actually
losing what we love most, seems to be the only thing that can move us into this place
of spiritual freedom. It may be
adventurous to say that Peter starts out with the love for his kids and then
ends up loving himself better as he finds his inner child again. Some of us may need to begin at
believing that love even exists and that we ourselves are greatly loved. The stress, danger, wars and evil in
our world do not seem to help us trust God with this but that’s where Tinker
Bell sprinkles her magic fairy dust because in the end we are not really in
charge of anything, even our spiritual journey itself needs to be given up and
surrendered to God. Great movie to
re-watch this Christmas Season!
Have a very Merry Christmas!
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