New Life? It calls me.
Plus, God’s mission to share it as observed through Moana
“If the voice starts to whisper to follow the farthest star, that voice inside is who you are.” – Moana’s Grandma
What’s your calling from God?
Ever looked down the path in the direction to which God is nudging you onward, and you can almost hear an imaginary forecaster in your head say, “more dense fog today”? My hand is raised. The road ahead can be hazy. The white mist has descended, settled in for the long haul and it’s clouded up the entire scene before me.
Even when the fog lifts and I see more clearly God’s exact plan for how He wants to use me, I lack understanding of how I am going to get there. Paralyzed by doubt, fear or logistical concerns, I just can’t seem to take the first step toward it. Which is the right first step anyway? There are multiple laid before me: which one begins the trail that will lead me there the quickest or most painlessly? (I’m not getting any younger, so efficiency on the path seems to matter at this point.)
That’s me. What about you? Maybe you’ve overcome the fog, cleared the brush and started down a path, but once you got a little way into it, you became absurdly attuned with your inadequacies. Thoughts of I’m not the one. I don’t have what it takes. Why would He choose me for this? bombarded your mind.
Ever looked down the path in the direction to which God is nudging you onward, and you can almost hear an imaginary forecaster in your head say, “more dense fog today”?
Moana gets it. In the Disney animated feature film with the same name, there is a spiritual way about which the ocean waters call to this passionate princess. She is acutely aware of a strong force leading her toward the ocean’s waves (and past the reef) all the time. She is practically still a child when she learns she is the chosen one: the ocean chose her to fulfill a life-giving mission of divine proportions.
God (not the ocean) has placed a calling on your life. It may not look like what others around you are doing. In Moana’s case, she had to fight to overcome beliefs long held by the people of her island that discouraged her from ever taking the first stroke of an oar onto her heroic journey. Once she is on the journey, the demigod Maui, her partner in crime, though not by choice, mocks her. He questions whether she has the credentials to be a contender in the conquest and tells it to her face. When Moana’s journey takes an unexpected turn, she questions even the help of the ocean itself. “I said, ‘Help me! she spouts off indignantly at the sea when its storm washes her ashore a seemingly deserted island. (She doesn’t realize until later that the raging seas actually brought her directly to her first destination: to where Maui resides.) From Moana’s excursion and our own, we learn that if it’s a calling worth taking, it most likely won’t be easy.
Fellow blogger Dalaina May writes in her Theology of Moana post, “I resonate with the excitement and terror of Moana’s first venture into the sea, the wild joy of freedom followed swiftly by fear that it was all a terrible idea.”
Moana, too, has her doubts. One of the central themes of the entire movie is that along with the supporting characters, Moana must find out who she is before she is fully capable of fulfilling her mission. The destination is to free the island goddess, Te Fiti by helping return her stolen heart, which was once full of life and light. However, an equally worthy outcome is Moana discovering her identity, walking into her purpose and living out her destiny.
Though it’s thought otherwise, Maui can’t deliver the heart because Moana IS the heart. The ocean itself could have delivered the glowing stone, but it chooses instead to place it in the hands of Moana…as a TODDLER. She is uniquely equipped. Through her own healing, she is going to deliver it in a kind of way that truly heals.
Dalaina continues:
“’The call isn’t out there at all, it’s inside me…I am Moana.’ This declaration (from the song “I am Moana”) isn’t arrogance. When we understand that we are God’s beloved, uniquely and perfectly made, called to the wildness of His sea, there isn’t much left to do but walk in that knowledge. It changes everything. It empowers us to do what feels absurdly difficult. It allows us to live beyond ourselves for the good of others. It gives birth to joy and peace and love.”
When we understand that we are God’s beloved, uniquely and perfectly made, called to the wildness of His sea, there isn’t much left to do but walk in that knowledge.
It was Moana’s grandmother, a source of great wisdom, who quietly and patiently shows Moana, and then reminds her again, of her unmistakable identity. Moana’s newfound confidence in who she is leads her to tell Te Fiti who she really is, and in doing so, brings the goddess, depraved in her loss of beauty and power, from death to life. Moana is confident that she possesses what it takes to heal her: it’s the light. And so Moana bravely walks toward Te Fiti, not away. No one else would come within miles. Moana must risk her life to do so because when the source of Te Fiti’s goodness and life—her heart—was ripped from her, her life-giving power took a dark and scary turn, and now she is the unrecognizable Te Ka, a lava monster who throws fireballs at anyone who comes near. Nevertheless, Moana comes face to face with the fiery beast and holds up her light.
“I have crossed the horizon to find you. I know your name. They have stolen the heart from inside you, but this does not define you. This is not who you are. You know who you are. Who you truly are.” And so, this is about Te Fiti’s identity as much as it is about Moana’s. And maybe it’s about your’s too.
The world is good at stealing the heart from inside us. It’s a devilish work. Our soul’s identity is in a loving, forgiving God, but the Devil tries telling our core a different story: that God is not for us. That we are on our own. That we have no hope. When we let the world or that deceptive voice tell us who we are, we become who we didn’t want to be. Moana does the reviving work of stirring something anew in Te Fiti: she didn’t have to let this be the story.
When we let the world or that deceptive voice tell us who we are, we become who we didn’t want to be.
1 Corinthians 5:17 reminds us “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here.”
The love shown by Moana, who came near to Te Fiti even when she was at her ugliest—so damaged by others she is hardly recognizable—it smolders her raging fire. It cools her, breaks through all the hard places, softens, and finally, breathes life into. She is freed from her blasting anger. New life spreads: it’s contagious. Greenery and flowers flourish and expand every which way, touching everything around her. She is restored.
Moana gives the great gift of seeing someone for who they are and the beauty of who they are meant to be. Finding courage to reject assumptions based on outward appearance or rough edges caused by grievous circumstances, she sees beyond what is to what could be.
Finding courage to reject assumptions based on outward appearance or rough edges caused by grievous circumstances, Moana sees beyond what is to what could be.
Dalaina points out that Maui is preparing to do battle, to suit up and fight Te Ka, but “Moana interrupts him with incredible courage and insight. She recognizes that the demon is Te Fiti, changed beyond recognition when her heart had been stolen.” She continues, “We are able to call out the image of God in others only after we have lifted our eyes to see our reflection in the loving eyes of Jesus.” Stephanie Hillberry in The Jesus Interruption devotional explains Jesus this way: “He reflects our true image back to us. Unlike the distorted fun-house mirrors we’re used to, warped by sin and lies and baggage from our past, Jesus’ mirror shows the best version of us—the version he sees, the version he died for.” That is essentially what Moana does for Te Fiti.
We are all given a calling that comes from God. You have a unique calling on your life that only you are meant to do. God has equipped you uniquely for it. So what are you passionate about? What is God calling you to bring the light of His life to? No matter what Moana was doing on the island, she sensed a pull to the ocean. Something or someone out there needed her. Though you go about your day, what keeps calling you?
What is God calling you to bring the light of His life to?
He’s made you passionate about it to bring life to it, through His life. Maybe it’s some sort of poverty that exists around you: a physical need or a spiritual one. You may even very well be called to be the messenger that brings someone from death to life by telling them who they are in Jesus.
In Moana’s theme song “How Far I’ll Go,” she comments on just how powerful the light is when she belts out, “See the light as it shines on the sea? It’s blinding.” It’s that light by which she is led. Psalm 119:105 reminds us that Jesus is “a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” John 1:4 declares, “In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” So take that first step into the fog. It’s a journey that will lead you and others deeper into His light.
Leave a comment below and tell me how the story of Moana impacted you. I want to know where you are in the journey of chasing after your calling!
Then, are you interested in finding more ways to connect your daily life, movies and culture back to the heart of Jesus?
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