Toy Story’s Sheriff Woody, Soldiers and Missional Living

This morning I ran into a friend whose son joined the Marines and was assigned to duty for the next several months in Rota, on the west coast of Spain. Having been to Spain several times I was thinking, “Man! Peter really lucked out—paella, sangria, flamenco, great beaches, sun…what a lucky guy….” Peter didn’t feel that way. He wanted to be in Afghanistan. Go figure. But a Marine’s purpose is to fight…not to lie on the beach…as enjoyable as the beach is to the rest of us. Purpose and fulfillment go together.

Currently I’m reading Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs—a fascinating story behind the company and the man. When Jobs took over Pixar, their first project was Toy Story…and they just couldn’t get it to work. The main toy character,Woody, was just…well….unlikable. They needed a breakthrough. Then the idea hit them. What if inanimate objects, like toys, could think and feel? What if they had emotions tied to their raison d’être? If a toys purpose was to be played with then the worst thing that could happen to that toy would to be set aside or thrown out. Toys are the happiest when being played with. Toys are most fulfilled when they are fulfilling their purpose. The movie went on to gross nearly $400m and is recognized one of the greatest and most revolutionary films of all time.

When are we the happiest and most fulfilled? When we are fulfilling our creative purpose—to be engaged in the good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do…when we are partnering with God in his redemptive mission in the world…connecting to God, self, others and the world. Soldiers were not trained to sit on the beach; toys are not designed to sit in the toy box; we are not created in Christ Jesus just to…