If I’ve used this movie before as an example, I apologize … kinda. Only to a degree because I love the movie UP. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite Pixar movies, which is saying a lot because I think Pixar consistently makes the best and most creative movies on the market.
So I watched this movie again this weekend. In the midst of getting choked up yet AGAIN, God showed me and taught me something in the midst of it.
Let me take a moment to again say that just because God used this movie to teach me something, 1) that is only because He loves me and talks to me everywhere and in everything, 2) the makers of the movie didn’t necessarily intend the message, and 3) it doesn’t justify watching movies. Just because God uses a vessel doesn’t justify the vessel. That’s how false religion starts, and is actually more central to the message of this post than you might think.
(Warning: heavy spoilers here … so if you haven’t seen the movie and want to enjoy it without my summaries, STOP READING NOW … and read this later.)
The movie centers around an old man, Carl, who has lived a long life and is content to stay in his old house alone and stubborn against the world. While he decides to chase after a lifelong dream, he gets “stuck” with a young boy, Russel, a talking dog and a rare bird. Carl is constantly torn between the house he ultimately has to drag behind himself and the adventure he finds with Russel, the talking dog, and the rare bird.
All of this reminds me of a conversation I’ve had with people recently warning of a pattern that I’ve seen in the Kingdom of God. And it is a negative pattern.
People in the Kingdom have monumental experiences, spiritual experiences where they grow and find joy and live a good life. But God is always doing new things, and instead of continuing on as the cloud or pillar of fire moves on, they hold on to these old experiences and refuse to consider that a new adventure awaits them.
American Christianity is one of the most segregated cultures in the world. Not just racially but in regards to age and generation as well. And institutions, by their very nature, can only encourage and deepen such segregation.
The generational segregation exists exactly because the older generation rests on the laurels and the experiences of the past instead of realizing their new role in what God is doing now.
We are all guilty of it, at least to a certain degree. It is a very common temptation. I’ve had several situations/experiences that I’ve had to let go of to move on to what God has for me next. Personally, from Happy Hollow to the Trammell house church to our time in Korea to the Hospitality House and now on to Gwinnett Church. And there will be things after this, as well.
Being thankful for the past and what God has done is one thing. Holding onto it to the detriment of investing in where God has you now is another thing altogether.
In the movie, there is this amazing scene where Carl has to make a decision. Russel decides to go to save the rare bird and leaves Carl and Carl’s house behind. Carl looks at this adventure journal his wife had since they were kids, and he sees how she filled the blank pages with their life before she died. And she leaves him a message: Thanks for the adventure! Now go have a new one!
Carl needs his house to go after Russel but it won’t get off the ground. So he dumps all of his treasured belongings to make the house lighter so he can fly after Russel to save Russel and the rare bird.
Too many of the older generation of believers are so tied to their previous experience in the Kingdom that they are bound to the past and unable to see the need for them in whatever God is doing today. And the Church does need them.
But the Church doesn’t need the older generation to recreate what God did in the past. They need the older generation as guides and someone to encourage the younger generation as the younger generation acts on their passion and the vision they’ve received from God.
In 1 John, the apostle makes three distinctions of his audience: young children (people glad for the forgiveness of sins), young men (those who are overcoming the evil one), and fathers (who walk with Him who is from the beginning).
There is a whole generation who is now overcoming the evil one, and they will not overcome the evil one and be saved from this wicked generation by using the past as a formula. That is the evil of religion. The Spirit is new and fresh; God does a new thing and desires new songs. Yesterday’s manna rots and produces worms.
But while we shouldn’t use the past as a formula, the testimony of those who have gone before us is necessary. Otherwise we should throw our Bibles away.
The role of the older generation in the Kingdom is to be Fathers. This has two main aspects: first, to be a living testimony of those who “walk with Him who is from the beginning”, a testimony of a mature walk, and second, to encourage and guide the unique spiritual vision of the current generation, to be able to remind the younger generation that all is temporary and there are some principles which are timeless and true regardless of expression.
The younger generation longs for this role. They need it. This is the family of God, where the young realize their own temptations to spiritualize worldly things like music and buildings (or lack thereof) and structures need to be tempered. But instead they see a testimony of an older generation that holds on tooth and nail to the past and the worldly things they associate with Christianity … so why should the young be any different?
In the movie, Carl ultimately takes ownership of the talking dog and Russel and while he loses his old life, Carl finds new satisfaction in a new adventure.
With my own son, is it being a good father to say, “This is how you grow up to become just like me,” or to say, “I want you to be whatever God wants you to be and I’ll do my best to help you realize that reality”? I say the latter and that’s what the Church today needs.
Unfortunately, I don’t know how many older saints read my blog. But if I could say one thing to them, it is this: There is no retirement in the Kingdom of God. Roles change and evolve, and we need you. We need your encouragement and guidance, friendship, involvement and testimony. There is a whole younger generation that needs you to stop meeting with other older saints of God to try and relive the glory days. Encourage the younger generation in their calling by walking through it with them. Take ownership of this new role God has for you. We want you and we need you. In some ways, your true ministry might not be behind you … it might be just beginning.
It’s time for a new adventure.
Peace.
Love UP as well because of the spiritual implications. Having experienced a bit of death in my short lifetime, my attention was captured within the first few minutes of the film. It was a beautiful story about how the older man, Carl, learns to let go of the “things” associated with his dead wife so that he could truly continue living in the spirit of what they experienced together. This had literal implications for me in that the people I love and miss who have passed on are not tied to the things I have. They are deeply imbedded in my life and have become an integral part of who I am today. It also had spiritual implications for me, though, like you are saying. Holding on to the temporal things associated with something that was valuable in our life is completely missing the point. The intangible things we carry with us are far more real and eternal–and they were the real point of the experience anyway.
And, I’ll admit I cried at several points during this film as well. Such a moving story and the Lord used it to teach me, too.
Good post, bro.