We've been given a Superpower
Friday night is pizza and movie night for our family. It’s the best. At the end of our week we create space for a giant exhale. This past Friday the boys chose a newly released, but old movie, for us to watch. BIG, starring Tom Hanks, which was originally released in 1988. My wife asked, “So what’s the movie about?” I cried a little inside and then placed her on movie picking probation because she had never seen BIG before. There are at least two iconic movie scenes in this movie, the most famous being the playing/dancing on the giant electronic piano.
To be honest, I had not watched the movie in well over 20 years, so I just took its PG rating as making it safe. But when you have a 10 and 7 year old watching the movie, you find yourself shouting at a few scenes, “this cannot be rated PG!” Yikes. But the rating rant is not the point here.
The plot of the movie is the point. A 12 year old boy asks to be BIG, which essentially means older. He wakes up the next day as a 30 year old Tom Hanks, BUT he is actually still a 12 year old inside. Yes, it does set up some funny scenarios and offers a coming of age element, but it also clearly reveals that he was not prepared for living as a 30 year old. A couple days later the movie actually partnered well with our daily Advent reading, which led to a great conversation for our family. One of my sons pointed out that a lot of people just want 2020 to be over, which is really about the current state of our world to be fixed so we can return to normal. People want to skip what is so they can get to what will be.
I immediately responded with, “No way!” Well, yes I want the chaos to be over, but I am also experiencing immense gratitude for not being able to skip ahead, because I think we would find ourselves living within the premise of the movie. We would be a 12 year old trying to navigate a 30 year old’s life. Yes, this is me being the super obnoxious guy saying, in general, I don’t think we are mature enough to handle it.
Which leads us into the very heart of Advent, where humanity is being invited to slow down and learn how to actively and patiently wait.
How about another angle on this. In the movie, the main character was magically transported from a 12 year old body to a 30 year old body. But he didn’t actually grow through or experience all the ages.
Do you realize we have been given a superpower? No, we didn’t ask for it, but it happened to us nonetheless. I assume you’ve played the game where everyone answers the question, “If you could have any superpower, what would you choose?” We then have to set our mind into make believe mode in order to wonder what superpower would be most awesome.
But today isn’t make believe. In many ways our world has been paused or frozen. Our world has been forced to stand still.
We have been given the power to walk around in the great pause.
And I think that what has been revealed has yet to be absorbed.
We are a solid ten months into this and many people are still denying, still arguing, or simply plugging their ears, covering their eyes and attempting to plow through. But this is not a movie. This is not make believe, so the scenes are not funny… at all.
We have essentially been handed the superpower of pausing the world around us, and we are being asked, “What must change before we hit the resume button?” In the spirit of Advent, might I ask what exactly are we waiting for? What are we expecting to be born?
Because Christmas is about newness. Christmas is about that which was before us, now being born to us. So that that this newness will now be here with us.
One of things I see the movie BIG teaching us is, before we can can actually be 30 we have to go through and then beyond 12.
As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, may we also prepare to give birth to a new humanity.
