The Accidentally Illuminating Theology of Lumiere
A couple of mornings a week I take my daughter to kindergarten. We talk about lots of important stuff along the way: what snack is in her lunchbox. What snack might be in her lunchbox tomorrow. What snacks are the All Time Favorites that have ever been in her lunchbox.
And most days, we turn on Pandora’s Disney channel and jam out to some old school classics from The Lion King and The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. We break down the meaning of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” And we sing along with Olaf’s brilliant rendition of “In Summer.” (I’m going into this level of excruciating detail so you won’t think it odd that a dude in his 40’s randomly came up with the following illustration. I have a five year old little girl and a weekday musical mission. Back off.)
Yesterday as we were enjoying the wonder that is Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s “Be Our Guest,” I realized that they had accidentally stumbled onto the concept behind spiritual gifts. (You read that right.) As Lumiere the servant-turned-sconce mournfully sang:
Life is so unnerving
For a servant who’s not serving
He’s not whole without a soul to wait upon
Ah, those good old days when we were useful
Suddenly those good old days are gone
Ten years we’ve been rusting
Needing so much more than dusting
Needing exercise, a chance to use our skill
Most days we just lay around the castle
Flabby, fat and lazy you walked in and oopsie daisy
Did you catch it? One of the marks of a believer is that we will be a servant, just as Jesus served us (Mark 10:45, Philippians 2:6-7). We all have a gift that needs to be exercised (1 Peter 4:10). And when we serve, we realize that the way up is down (Mark 9:35).
When we don’t serve, we don’t just rob other people, but ourselves. We miss out on a huge part of our Christian journey. We get flabby, fat and lazy, all to our detriment as believers.
Are you serving? Are you serving actively? Are you serving joyfully? Are you serving regularly? If not, what’s stopping you? What do you need to do to get back in the game and to realize God’s call on your life?
Related posts:
- Stop Discovering Your Spiritual Gift
- Get To vs. Guilted To
- Where Do I Serve? Three Areas That Should Intersect
(photo credit: disneyscreencaps.com)
