Lessons from Moana

You might remember my post about lessons from Hamilton.  Well to continue with my Lin-Manuel Miranda fandom, I have another one for you concerning Moana.  And I have seen this movie a lot.  It used to be the only movie that Flint would sit through the entire thing.  And there are actually a lot of lessons to be learned from Moana, but I'd like to focus on one in particular today.

Moana has set off on her journey across the ocean to find Maui.  Through a series of events, she ends up with her boat capsized and feels helpless.  She calls to the ocean, screaming, "Help me!" As opposed to getting the help she was hoping for from the ocean, she is approached by big dark storm clouds and thunderous waves.  She and her boat go through a collasal storm and then she finds her self on an unknown island.  Even though she is angry with the ocean and yells and screams in frustrations, it turns out, however, that she was on the exact island she needed to be on to find Maui and go about her journey.

So the ocean did help her.  Yes, she had to go through a horrible storm, but it was through that storm that she was able to accomplish the thing she so desperately wanted.  Hmmmm.... you mean I have to like do hard things to get what I want sometimes? You mean maybe the ocean (metaphorically God) knows it was hard, but also knows that it takes us to where we want to be? Or makes us into who we want to become? Dang.  But doing hard things, is, well, hard!

As I've thought about this concept, I have realized that it has applied a lot throughout my life.  I particularly think about one of the most embarrassing days of my life.  Not embarrassing in the funny way.  Or maybe not enough time has passed for me to find it funny... Anyway.  I studied abroad in Jerusalem for a semester and part of the semester, we spent an extended weekend in the country Jordan.  So of course during that weekend we went to see Petra.  And boy was it amazing! To see one of the cool buildings, however,  you have to climb a million stairs to get to it.  At this time in my life, I was soooo out of shape.  I never exercised, I didn't try and eat healthy, and I was at one of the heaviest weights of my life.  So take all of that into consideration and you can imagine that climbing a million stairs, was, well, horrible.  The reason it was embarrassing though was because we had to be in groups of 3 or more at all times, so since I was so out shape, I slowed all of the people I was with down considerably because none of them seemed to be having the difficulty I was with getting up these stairs.  Even the senior missionary couple had an easier time getting up those stairs.  So I was so so embarrassed and humiliated.  BUT.  I did it.  And I made it up those stairs (wanting to die at the end throughout the entire time.) And I got to see this:

Pretty cool eh? Yes, I'm sporting an Indian Jones hat and holding a whip :) And although I will admit that it took me a while to appreciate it since I could barely breath, I am glad I did it.  Not a lot of people can say they've been to Petra.  And I consider myself lucky to be able to have seen this.  Not only did climbing those stairs help me achieve something cool that day, but it was also a starting point on my health journey in general.  I lost 50 lbs after this picture so that climb up the stairs helped me in more ways than I ever thought :)

There are lots of other instances of going through something hard to achieve something great in my life.  And so I have to trust that anything I go through now that is hard will also be for my good.  God does promise that all things will work together for our good.  So maybe the last 3 years of intense stress about Ben's job and matching is going to be for my good.  And God will put me right where I'm supposed to be, just like the ocean did with Moana. And just like he always will.