Ah, The Magic Kingdom. The place memories are made. The enchanted land of fairies, roller coasters, princesses, giant mice with pet dogs, a duck who has no wings, just arms and hands…. It’s the place you take your children to escape reality and enter blissful happy people heaven.
Kind of. A little bit. But, not exactly.
I grew up about twenty minutes from Disneyland. We went a lot. I know where most everything is in the park. I know where the best cheap restaurants are. I know that riding Thunder Mountain is way more fun if you turn around backward and exactly when to close my eyes to avoid seeing the abominable snowman on the Matterhorn. But I hadn’t been to a Disney park for about ten years until last week.
When we got to the park in Orlando, I realized something: surprisingly, I wasn’t amazed in this amazing place. It struck me that regular life has really begun looking a whole lot like a Disney dreamland.
The malls we frequent have butterfly benches next to splash fountains where children can play. The shops have beautiful facades that all look like unique art installations. Our movie theaters have recliners and blankets. Planes have a television in the seat for your enjoyment alone. The birthday parties our children are invited to have live entertainment and rented trucks full of fun and bounce houses and unique themes. It’s just all so amazing.
In the middle of Fantasyland, where we all enjoyed flying over London on Peter Pan and then a carousel ride, I began to wonder what it would take to really amaze our nation again.
Imagine if you traveled back to 1984 with an iPad or even a basic cell phone. People would completely freak out. We live in an amazing time, but everything is so, so, sooooo amazing that it can all sometimes seem so common.
If everything is special, does it all cease to feel special?
I think it’s time for some normal life. We need some days where we wake up and take care of our responsibilities and feel thankful for the chance to put in a hard day of labor. Our daily bread calls for some gratitude because it is common and simple, not in spite of it. We are in danger of losing the purpose of the disciplined life if we don’t carefully remember its value.
So, I will choose not to reward myself with a nice latte after a grueling morning of homeschooling. I will refuse to use the easy bribe of sweets or media privileges to induce my children to fulfill their responsibilities. I will savor the sweet satisfaction of knowing my hard work honors my family, my God and my character. I will tell my children they do not deserve “the good life”, but they have been mercifully given life by a great and mighty God.
The Westminster catechism teaches us that God has made us and all things for His glory. Maybe that is why our hearts yearn for more than even Disney can offer. Flashy rides and creative shows delight our senses, but can’t match our true destiny in God.
We are a common people inhabited by a powerfully creative God. It is He who makes us more than ordinary. And so my heart cries out this prayer that was written by an ordinary man whom God used to do glorious things many, many years ago:
…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him…. so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.
-Ephesians 1:17-19
Amen. And, thanks, Disney. Maybe God used you to do something glorious in me. Imagine that.
