"So Darn Happy..."

The wisdom of Disney as reminded by being in the same room as the boy watches "Zootropolis."

If you've not seen it, do...

The basic premise is that in a world where predators no longer eat prey (best I can work out they have replaced meat with doughnuts), Judy Hopps wants to become the first "Bunny Cop" in Zootropolis. Typical ups and downs with twists follow.

But this is the exchange that caught me again this morning:

Stu: "Judy, you ever wonder how your mom and me got to be so darn happy?"
Judy: "Nope"
S: "Well, we gave up on our dreams, and we settled. Right, Bon?"
Bon: "Oh, yes. That's right, Stu. We settled hard."
S: "You see, that's the beauty of complacency, Jude. If you don't try anything new, you'll never fail."
J "I like trying, actually."
B: "What your father means, hon, is that it's gonna be difficult, impossible even..."
S: "- for you to become a police officer.
B: "- Right. There's never been a bunny cop."
S: "- No."
B: "- Bunnies don't do that."
S: "- Never."
B: "- Never."
J: "Well... Then I guess I'll have to be the first one. Because I am gonna make the world a better place!
S: "Or, heck, you know. You wanna talk about making the world a better place, no better way to do it than becoming a carrot farmer."
B: "Yes! Your dad, me, your 275 brothers and sisters."
S: "- We're changing the world."
B: "- Yeah."
S: "- One carrot at a time."
B: "- Amen to that."
S: "Carrot farming is a noble profession. "
B: "You get it, honey? I mean, it's great to have dreams."
S: "Yeah, just as long as you don't believe in them too much."

I can imagine the same conversations would happen in "happy" churches, where people have "settled hard", and that's all they want from life.

I heard someone once call places of comfort and "happiness" like "porridge churches": There's nothing inherently wrong with it, it's comforting, it's warm, it's nice... but that's not how church should be. Yet Heaven forbid anyone should anyone be brave enough to suggest there might be more to church and christianity and mission than we currently have.

How many pioneers have been stopped in their tracks with the condescending words that "It's great to have dreams... just don't believe in them too much"?

I reckon that's a huge contributing factor to the currently "missing" generation in our churches. I think that a large number of those in their 20's and 30's were longing for the church to be more, but their churches were too comfortable for the rest of the congregation to want to move.

The problem with porridge is, the longer it's left, the thicker it becomes, the harder it is to serve, and eventually it just needs throwing out...

We're not yet at the point of no return, but we need to become unsettled again.