You Are the Pan!

There is another moment in “Hook” that completed the journey for Peter Banning.  I’m milking this movie for all it’s worth!

Peter is still wrestling with all it means to be “the Pan”.  He is in a cave with Tinker Bell, and she is trying to help him live into his identity.  After she helps him find his happy thought – his kids -  he discovers he can fly.  He doesn’t do too well at first, but once he gets his bearings it’s like riding a bike.  He flies around Neverland, and eventually lands among the treehouses.  The Lost Boys dance and jump as their leader is back.  “The Pan” can fly again!   It’s at this point that Rufio, the leader of the Lost Boys, gives “The Pan’s” sword back to Peter saying the now classic line, “You are the Pan”.    After receiving the sword, Peter draws a line in the sand, and they all have a choice to make, including Rufio. 

Discovering who you are is one thing, but it’s amazing when others acknowledge it, affirming it in community.  Doing things together provides clarifying moments for us, as it did for Peter.  His identity was now complete and affirmed by the Lost Boys, making his “thing to do” clear; find his kids and rid Neverland of Hook forever.  

But he couldn’t have made that journey by himself.  He needed Wendy, Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, and finally Rufio to help him discover who he really was and what that meant.  We can’t make the journey alone either.

Doing things together is essential.  We don’t have to figure out our journey on our own.  We receive encouragement, direction and correction from each other.  Just like discovering who we are is done best together, compassion is best expressed when we figure it out and do it together.  We can try to do things alone, but doing things together not only creates a more sustainable solution, but also protects us from doing things the wrong way.  I think we all want to do “what is ours to do” the right way.  This has been at the heart of our conversation this semester.

In our community, we’ve been patient, waiting for the right time to launch the Food Recovery Network.  The Food Recovery Network is a partnership our students have with Sodexo, our food service at Olivet, to reclaim food that can be recovered, distributing it to receiving organizations in our community  We've been patient, making sure we crossed our "t's" and dotted our "i's", until now it's time to act.  The past two days 150 students signed up to help recover food at the end of each meal.  This is something we can do.

We, like many of you will collect canned goods over the coming month.  Where we live we are helping organizations in our community provide Thanksgiving meals for our neighbors.  This is something we can do for our community.

We'll also participate in helping to provide Christmas gifts for Chicago’s City Life Center, a church in the Englewood community of Chicago we partner with at Christmas, and also send an MIA team to over Spring break.  This year we will help provide Christmas gifts for the children and teens in that community.  You will hear more about this after Thanksgiving break.  This is something we can do.

As I've been going through our list, what has come to your mind.  I’m not sure you noticed, but the three things listed above really don’t take much effort on our part.  It’s just us, doing something, and watching the little thing we do together make a big impact.  If that's true for us, it's true for you, wherever you may be reading this.  No one can do everything, but we can all do something.  What are you hearing God say to you?  What is yours to do? 

1 Corinthians 12:12-26

Oh, there you are, Peter!

I’m not a movie buff, but I do have my favorites.  One of them is “Hook.”  Although I’ve seen the movie at least a dozen times, one scene gets to me every time I watch it.  If you haven’t seen the movie, “Hook” is about a man named Peter Banning who has lost his identity and is on a search to find out who he is.    

His home life is a mess: not balancing work demands, fighting with his children and wife, etc. His wife’s mother, whom we later discover is Wendy, guides him back to Neverland.  It’s there we find him among the treehouses with the Lost Boys.  They are trying to figure out who this giant, grown-up person is, and one of the boys tries to help Peter figure it out.  The boy looks at Peter’s face, thinking something there looks familiar. Then, he places his hands on Peter’s face, moves the skin around and, as he tightens the skin on Peter’s face, exclaims; “Oh, there you are, Peter!”

It’s the defining moment in the movie for Peter Banning as he discovers, with the help of a Lost Boy, who he is.  Once he knows who he is, he can do what he was made to do: free Neverland once and for all from Hook, Captain Hook.

Until we discover who we are, life can be confusing.  It only when our relationship with God is right, that our relationship with each other is made right.  That’s the way things work.  It’s the way we are created.  When we don’t know who we are, everything else in life is out of balance.  We can look in the strangest places, in the strangest ways, trying to figure this out. But it’s only when our relationship with God is restored that our relationships with one another can be as well. 

Shortcuts won’t work. 

When we attempt to find purpose — what is ours to do — without first getting our relationship with God right — who we were created to be — there is nothing we can do to fill that void.  It’s doing things backward.  It’s attempting to use things to fill our desire to have meaning, when we were designed to have that desire met in relationship.  No amount of causes we become involved in will satisfy us.  Our relationships with one another will never become all that God intended them to be. 

Just like Peter Banning couldn’t settle his own inner struggle, we can’t either.  An encounter with God is like that moment in “Hook” when a Lost Boy helps Peter discover who he is.  In that moment, Peter remembers what he was created to do. 

What I’m talking about is much more important than a children’s story or a movie.  The way for us to discover who we are isn’t in returning to a “Neverland.” The way is to allow God to place His hands on our face, move some skin around and, as our relationship with Him is restored, hear Him say as He looks us in the face: “Oh, there you are!”

John 15:4–11