Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Nightcrawler Experience!
This is the final installment in my collaboration with St. John's United Methodist Church for their "Summer movies" series. We will be looking at the amazing 2015 Pixar film 'Inside Out.'
I have always loved this movie, and consider it the single most intelligently- written movie Pixar has made up to this point. It deals with the sorts of advanced, heady concepts that I would never have imagined a kids' film would tackle. It also has some brilliant in- jokes throughout it, such as a scene in which a character has a nightmare which features subtle nods to three different past Pixar films as well as the 'Haunted Mansion' ride in the Disney parks.
For those who haven't seen it before, much of the action in 'Inside Out' takes place inside the mind of an eleven- year- old girl named Riley. Her mind is run by her emotions: Joy, Anger, Fear, Disgust, and Sadness. They are responsible for guiding her through every day and helping her to be as happy and well- adjusted as possible. These emotions are all thrown into turmoil when Riley's family moves to San Francisco, and things seem to just get worse and worse for the poor girl with each day. Through this, Joy and Sadness become separated from the Command Central along with Riley's "Core Memories," and must make their way back and get Riley's mental/ emotional state back under control before she ends up making the biggest mistake of her young life.
In the devotional I wrote which will be passed out at the screening, I point out that one Scriptural message can be drawn from the movie by comparing the movie's concept of "Core Memories" (Special, defining memories which helped shape Riley's personality and define who she is as a person in various ways) with the Fruits of the Spirit as seen in Galatians 5:22-26 (Which help to form our spiritual identities and define who we are in Christ). Another lesson from it concerns using Psalm 17. The way the emotions in 'Inside Out' direct and guide Riley's steps in various ways can be seen as similar to the way the first seven verses of Psalm 17 discuss how the Lord's presence within us can direct our steps as Christians.
Once again, though, I think a few more Scriptural messages can be derived from 'Inside Out' than just those.
The first directly concerns the character Sadness. As some of you who have followed this blog may recall, I included Sadness on my list of my Favorite Movie Characters from 2015. I pointed out that while Sadness is seen as useless by the other emotions and as having nothing worthwhile to contribute to Riley's mental and emotional well- being, we come to find as the movie goes on that she does serve an extremely useful purpose: Through her, others in Riley's life can see when she is hurting or in trouble, and thus be able to reach out to her and help her. When she was simply bottling up how upset she was over the move and the poor transition to their new city and house, Riley was preventing her parents and others around her from realizing just how in need of help she was. It was through her at last expressing her sadness in the film's climax that she was able to get the help she desperately needed. In much the same way, we may question why sad times come to us, and why God would put us through them. The fact is, our times of sadness are often used by God to help bring us closer to Him. When we are doing well, it can at times cause us to become too proud or oblivious to God's presence in our lives. It's when we go through sad times and need help through it that we realize how desperately we need God and pursue Him most fervently. Then, through Him, we gain the strength and faith to endure in those sad times, and can carry that strength and faith through our everyday lives after getting out of those periods. That has certainly been the case for me during the many sad and trying times I've faced in my life. It calls to mind Psalm 34:18, which says "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit." If it weren't for times of sadness in our lives, we would likely never have that kind of closeness to God.
In fact, in general, seeing the way that the various different emotions help with different parts of Riley's life (i.e. Fear keeps Riley from endangering herself, Anger helps her express when things are unfair, and so on) reminds me of Ecclesiastes 3, which points out that there is a time and a season for every activity under Heaven. There is a time when laughter is the right thing to do, and a time when weeping is more fitting. There's a time to be silent, and a time to speak up. God created us the way we are, and enabled us to go through so many feelings and experiences in order to help us grow and live abundantly.
Lastly, the way the vastly different emotions work together to help with different parts of Riley's life also reminds me of the way we as the body of Christ are all called to use our different spiritual gifts together to help build God's Kingdom and serve Him, and not look down on those whose gifts are different from ours or underestimate our own gifts. It calls to mind 1 Corinthians 12:12-30, which points out that the Christ's body has many different parts, no one of which is necessarily better or worse than another (Verse 22 even points out that "Those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable"), but all together contributing to the whole.
In conclusion, through seeing the strength that can come from our times of sadness, knowing that all things in our lives have their own times and seasons, and knowing that all of us who belong to Jesus have important gifts to contribute to the work God wants to do in the world, we can truly walk with Jesus, keep His joy and peace within us, and spread them around to others. That way, this sadly fallen world can be turned "Inside Out" for God.
So, that's the last installment of the Nightcrawler Experience's collab with St. John's United Methodist Church for this summer. It's been a great experience, I'm so happy to have been a part of it, and I look forward to hopefully working alongside them again in the future.
I'm working on new entries of the Nightcrawler Experience that'll be up soon. Until then, God bless you all!
