I cannot get that song out of my head.
If I type it out here and you read it, it might make you sing this song the rest of the day, too.
In the large, dark room, most people, including my daughter, were under the age of 10, watching hundreds of little Lego people zooming in their Lego cars and marching with their straight legs down the manicured city sidewalk. As I munched on the movie popcorn, I confess there was a little smile on my face because…
Everything is awesome! OK…I couldn’t help it. Now it’ll get stuck in your head.
The Lego Movie. I confess: I saw it twice in the theater and checked it out the first day it was at Red Box outside the local gas station. I don’t know why I like it so much.
Maybe because it brings back so many childhood memories when I played with those colorful, plastic pieces that were kept in the little, triangular space underneath the stairs in our basement where I’d create imaginary homes with a kitchen, living room and bedroom. Or maybe it’s the English lover part of me that finds so much symbolism, foreshadowing, and stuff like that in a movie…even in an animated, kid Lego movie.
Maybe because each time I’ve seen it, I pick up on a line a character says that I didn’t get before that makes me laugh. Or when you watch a movie for the second time, you already know the ending and you begin to understand, see and hear other subtle comments or actions in the earlier parts of the movie that foreshadowed the end of it.
So if you haven’t seen it, The Lego Movie is the classic story like so many stories and movies… and I think, the World, too. There’s good and there’s evil and good comes out victorious.
If you haven’t seen it, here’s a little introduction. If you’ve seen it, here’s a recap. The Lego Movie website describes Emmet, the main character, as…“An ordinary, rule-following, perfectly average LEGO minifigure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world.”
I so relate to him (the part about feeling like an ordinary, rule-following, average person). He’s like me or I’m like him and maybe you too?
In the movie, Emmet is considered to be the Special. The special one, the extraordinary one, even though he’s totally clueless of it and doesn’t see himself that way.
Yes, the moral of the story, and I think the point the writers are trying to make, is that each of us is extraordinary and special and to be brave.
Whether you’re a rule follower or creative with a wild imagination… you’re created special. By God. For a reason.
I just finished a fabulous book that I recommend everyone to read who needs a boost and a kick in pants to be brave. Let’s all be Brave by Annie Downs. She writes:
If you’re seeing yourself the way God sees you, then…you should see the unique ways you are wired and the rare combination of qualities and desires that make you uniquely you.
So when you hear me say ‘Believe in yourself’, this is what I want you to think about. Don’t believe in yourself in such a way that you think you can accomplish anything on your own. You can’t. To believe in yourself means to believe that God made you, and there is no one like you, that you have a unique call to courage, and that you can do the thing that is staring you in the face. Got it?
BELIEVE like the cat on the poster! OK…remember in the movie how Vitruvius (my FAV actor’s voice of all time, Morgan Freeman), the heroic wizard who prophesies that “Special” will defeat the bad guy and become the greatest Lego Master Builder ever) told Emmet to believe and that poster hung on the wall in the basement?)
As a believer, in order to believe, you must have faith. Belief of and faith that God gives us the Holy Spirit within our souls allows us to be creative so we can accomplish things we didn’t think we could do, or even have the imagination to do.
Because you are special, be brave and believe.
Jesus Christ is the extraordinary One who uniquely gives each of us special abilities, talents, gifts and interests.
You are the special one God uniquely created and chose to change this world. The world around you – the people in your world who is your community, your neighborhood, your workplace, your school, your family. Be brave and use those talents, cook that meal, knit that scarf, order that ticket, make that call, start that ministry, chase your dream.
Ephesians 4:7 says, God “…has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ.”Oh yes! He has, He is, and He always will because He created you with purpose and will give you what you need to do whatever it is He unique created you to do and be.
Be brave. Be special. Be you.