Thought on Planes (the movie)

Friday night, as a last toast to Summer break, my husband and I took our children to see the movie Planes. It was basically another version of Cars, an innocent and cute way to spend a family night. The children enjoyed it. It kept our adult attention and there were some nice examples of friendship, sportsmanship and the importance of honesty.

The plot centers around a rural crop duster, Dusty, who dreams of being a world class air racer. Dusty goes to great lengths in the movie to leave his identity behind in pursuit of his goal.  It seemed like just another movie about making dreams come true until a line near the very end of the film that was offered as somewhat of a moral to the story. One of Dusty's fans offers accolades along the lines of "from all of us who also dream of being more than we were created to be." (paraphrased)

I confess to sometimes being overly analytical, but this phrase really bothered me. 

I believe it is essential to the Christian worldview to recognize that we were each created by a Creator...on purpose and with a purpose.  Isn't the insinuation that who we were 'created to be' is somehow restrictive and mediocre a dangerous idea? I hate the notion that those to be lauded are those who take matters in their own hands and go beyond the original plan. (Garden of Eden, Tower of Babel anyone...)

Why not encourage Dusty to instead fully be who he was made to be with joy & excellence? Truthfully, we all know that wouldn't sell. The world views that as 'boring' and uninspiring.

The sad reality is that the majority of folks never even scratch the surface when it comes to using their gifts and being who they were made to be. We'd much rather attempt to reinvent ourselves into false, less effective characters more in line with what we wish we'd been made to do.

The result is a life of frustration.
We want to do more. God wants us to do US.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I don't believe someone actively sought to write a script to lead children down a path of wrong thinking. I do think it is a reflection of the accepted thinking of our times and a reminder that our Christian world view is different than that of the secular world.

So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.
Romans 12:6 The Message

Now I'll hop off my soapbox. :-)