"You have forgotten who you are, and so, forgotten me."
For those of you who haven't seen The Lion King or are having a hard time remembering, here's the background that you need to know. When the movie begins, Simba is the young son of the King, destined by birthright to receive an incredible inheritance. Simba's obviously very excited about this, until one day his evil uncle Scar kills the King and makes Simba think it's his own fault. Simba's father dies saving the life of his son. Overcome by guilt and fear, Simba runs away, and gets as far away as he can from the kingdom he was supposed to inherit. He stays there until he is fully grown, hanging out with two guys who are nothing like his father. He doesn't learn to forgive himself, because to do that would be to face his guilt, and that's sometimes the scariest thing we can do. It is at this point in Simba's life that the scene we just watched takes place.
Now, if I was murdered by my brother and my son spent his life thinking it was his fault - and all of a sudden I had a chance to talk to him - I gotta say that my first words would probably be something along the lines of "Hey look, your uncle killed me, not you, so calm down." So it's interesting to me that Mufasa doesn't do that here. The first thing he tells Simba is "You have forgotten me." Like, what? Of course he didn't! The whole reason Simba is out here in the middle of nowhere in the first place is because he thinks he basically killed his own dad. And yet - I thought about this clip immediately when I was asked to speak at my church on the subject of 'brokenness', and I want to show you why.
What do we do when we're broken?
What do you do when you fail a test? What do you do when you spot a stain on your outfit while you're at a party? What do you do when you trip in public?
You hide.
You throw that test away before someone sees it. You cover up that stain as best as you can. You get up off the ground and look around really quickly to see if anybody saw you. That's exactly what Simba did, and that's exactly what Moses did too. This is kind of cool - the producers of this movie admit that they drew heavily on the biblical story of Moses when putting the story together. Moses was a son in the palace of the Pharoah, but ran away from everything after he literally killed a guy. He ran somewhere he wouldn't have to face what he had done. Simba - the one who was supposed to be the king of his people - ended up living the "Hakuna Matata" life with Timon and Pumbaa, two guys who never pushed him to be who he knew he was supposed to be. Moses - the man God would choose to lead an entire people out of Egypt - found himself leading sheep to pass the time. Sure, if you asked them what they were up to, they might answer "I'm on a journey of self-discovery. I'm finding myself." But what they were really doing - what we are really doing - is going on a journey of self-burying. In fleeing our guilt, we often end up fleeing from our true purpose in the process.
"You have forgotten who you are, and so, forgotten me."
I love that. The King doesn't waste time talking about the past. He talks instead about right now. Right now, Simba isn't being who he's supposed to be. Mufasa doesn't bring Simba back to the moment Simba worked so hard to forget. Instead, he gets straight to the heart of the matter. "You must take your place in the Circle of Life". It reminds me a lot of Moses and the Burning Bush. God doesn't address the fact that Moses killed a guy. He doesn't even address it! Instead, he says "Bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt". Both Simba and Moses respond the exact same way. For Simba, it's "How can I go back?" For Moses, it's "Who am I that I should go to Pharoah?" Don't you know what I've done? Don't you know how broken I am? How can you use me?
And I love this. I love this. Because God doesn't worry about our brokenness the way we do. He cares about us and loves us, but he doesn't fixate on our brokenness like we do. Mufasa says "Remember who you are. You are my son." God tells Moses, "I will be with you." Our brokenness isn't a hindrance to God. Sometimes we run or hide from our mistakes. If we could simply remember that we are God's sons and daughters, we'd remember that his forgiveness and love is a gift that we all have free access to. Ephesians 1:7 says "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." Because we are God's children, we don't have to run from our mistakes. Because we are God's children, there is no place we can go that God's love will not reach. There is nothing we can do that will make us useless to God. Like, come on! Who made man's mouth? Who made the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Who are we to tell God that he cannot use us?
Your brokenness does not define you. Remember who you are. You are a child of God. And that means He's not finished with you yet.
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