I was in a store recently with a large display of televisions for sale. You’ve seen it before; all of them are playing the same movie at the same time, and often something animated that shows the fabulous clarity of the always evolving technology. This day they were all showing The Lion King. I wasn’t shopping for a TV, so I was just passing by, but I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard Mufasa telling Simba this:

You have forgotten who you are, and so have forgotten me. Look inside yourself Simba, you are more than you have become.

Okay, Mufasa. I don’t know about Simba, but you have my attention.

I suspect that you, like me, struggle at times with the whole purpose thing, and figuring out how you fit in the grand scheme of life. I know I’ve been given gifts that are specifically mine to use for God’s greater story, and I know that I’m here to glorify Him in everything I do. I know that. That’s why we’re all here, to pour all we have into our part of the grandest play ever written. But I, at least, still get stuck sometimes in the tasks of life, which can seem mundane and pointless, like they will have no impact whatsoever when it’s all said and done. Being buried under the everyday, and bound up with fear and insecurity when it comes to our gifting, and the giving of those gifts, turns our eyes to the temporary and obscures us completely from the sight of the ultimate, eternal goal.

It leaves us forgetting who we are: children of God…coheirs with Christ.

It leaves us forgetting God, Himself.

Maybe if we can start to remember, we’ll begin to live differently, with our face toward heaven. Because, really, thankfully, we ARE so much more than what we’ve become.

 

“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…” Romans 8:16-17 NIV

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9 NIV