“Independence Day According To Toy Story"

Last week, I had the pleasure of taking my 2 ½ year old daughter, Sophie, to watch the final movie in the great Toy Story series. Toy Story 3 was a good finale to the franchise that has touched all of our hearts. I have realized that what makes all three stories amazing is the concept of how we all are dependent upon one another in life.

In the first movie, Buzz becomes dependent upon Woody to save him. In the second movie, the roles are reversed as Woody becomes dependent upon Buzz to save him. In this third and final movie (unless Pixar decides to make another one), we see that all the toys are dependent upon each other. This concept of “strength found in unity” is what God desires us to have according to Romans 15:5-6. It states, “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In times of uncertainty, Satan’s greatest ploy to destroy the church is through the Spirit of discord which seeks to disrupt unity in the body. His goal is to render all of us confused, hurt, sad, and hopeless so that we would eventually abandon God, thus leading to a life that would not glorify Him. However, God’s greatest gift to the church during shaky times is the Spirit of Unity. Through this Spirit of Unity, God brings his people closer together so that we may all overcome the shaky times, together!

I found an interesting parallel with our church and the ending to Toy Story 3. So for those who haven’t seen the movie yet, you may not want to read the rest of this paragraph for this will spoil the movie. Toy Story 3 sets its setting on Andy having to move on to college and as a result, has to make the decision as to what he would do with the toys. The toys then decide to go independent in order to save themselves from going to the garbage incinerator, only to find themselves in the very garbage incinerator that they were avoiding. Although they are found in the incinerator on the brink of destruction, what ends up saving the toys was the common bond in unity which was unbreakable and found themselves being saved by the unlikeliest of toys – the three Martians and the infamous claw.

The moral of the story is that the toys are always able to go through the tough times because they all had each other! And in God’s church, the concept is the same. Pastors are always called by God according to the different seasons God has in store for them. Even though Pastors may be called to a different place to minister, what makes the church strong is the bond that congregation members have with each other. And Jesus, being our Master Shepherd, will never leave us nor forsake us and surely He will give us another leader (as Andy does leaving the toys in good hands with Bonnie) who will lead us to the next level of maturity and direction in which our church needs to go.

Exactly 234 years ago, the founding fathers of our nation signed the Declaration of Independence, explaining the legal separation of the American colonies from Great Britain and at this time every year, we celebrate this spirit of independence. But as God’s people, I implore every one of us to put our dependence upon God as we keep the Spirit of Unity alive within our church so that we may glorify God throughout this time of transition as we put all our hopes in the clutches of His claws, (a-hem) I meant hands.