A Life Lesson… from Elf.

Welcome to my mind. It’s a beautiful, complex and sometimes chaotic place… with a lot of space devoted to movies!

Growing up, I adored films, theatre and storytelling. I wasn’t the kid who pretended to be a chef… I pretended to be an actor playing a chef! My mind simply worked that way from day one. I loved creating stories, telling stories, and exploring life through the lens of storytelling.

Then, when I was 17, while I prayed about my future, God so clearly spoke a single word to my heart: Collision.

I knew my life would never be the same as I’d just been given my life’s assignment and mandate. To take my passion for storytelling and collide it with the Kingdom of God. To use my talents, skills and anointing for storytelling to glorify God and take God into the world of film and theatre. That’s my life’s great goal! Every single day, I try to live out that assignment, even in the small moments. If there’s an opportunity to ‘collide’, I take it!

That’s how The Collision Initiative was born. A ministry where I seek out and create opportunities for myself, my community and the world to collide our different passions with God’s kingdom.

A lot of it comes back to movies since they’re my dominant passion! However, that’s not the only endeavour. We launched Collision Community Walks, where people enjoy embracing fitness with their church community, pursue healthy lifestyle choices, and encourage each other with faith-filled conversations as we walk around a beautiful lake. That's Collision.

So I’m excited for the launch of our new adventure, Collision Cookout, where we’ll provide a space for ladies to connect over shared passions for cooking and baking, share stories and swap recipes in a faith-filled environment with our church community.

But today, given we’re celebrating our Christmas in July Quarterly publication, I have a Christmas-movie-themed encouragement for you.

Have you seen the film Elf? To quote Martin Scorsese, “This is cinema.”

It’s a hilarious comedy following Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf, who adventures from the North Pole to find his biological father in New York City, falls in love, and restores the Christmas Spirit so Santa can deliver his presents on Christmas Eve.

If you’d asked me what the film was about, I would’ve answered something along the lines of “embrace your inner child, rediscover the wonder of life, and never let go of the Christmas Spirit”.

However, I watched a fascinating documentary on the making of Elf and discovered I was very wrong in my assumption.

The documentary included an interview with the film's screenwriter, David Berenbaum. He said something that stayed with me.

“My father passed away when I was younger. So the emotional drive of the movie is really searching for the father... I knew that's the journey I wanted Buddy to go on.”

He talked about the comedy and fun of the film, but said at its very core, Elf is a story about a son and father.

Yes, it’s told through hilarious moments involving reindeer and maple syrup, but the story itself is profound and deeply moving. Berenbaum shared how he lost his own father when he was quite young, and the story of Buddy finding his father and having that relationship restored is what kept him anchored throughout the writing and filming process.

They had endless possibilities for making people laugh, but in Berenbaum’s opinion, the film was so successful because people loved the fun and humour while also connecting, even subconsciously, with its core message of family.

If it hadn’t had that anchor, it would’ve been nothing more than a funny skit played out on the big screen, providing lots of laughs but no substance.

God recently brought this documentary back to my mind.

I realised that in the same way I’d misunderstood Elf’s real story, I could miss the real story God wants to write in my life.

David Berenbaum could see past the Santa costume and green tights, beneath the snowmen and singing elves, and see the actual story being played out on screen: the story of a father and son reuniting.

In the same way, can I look past the storms I’m facing and beneath the pain I’m experiencing to see the story God is still writing?

Will I ignore the distractions of society and today’s zeitgeist to focus ‌on the call of God on my life?

Do I recognise the difference between opportunities that are good, and opportunities that are God?

Would it change the way I approach each day if I had an unwavering conviction about the most important part of the scene I was living?

Is my reputation the hilarious montage of Buddy exploring New York to Pennies from Heaven, while reaching the lost is the father-son reunion at the heart of my story?

Having money in my bank account is great, just as Jon Favreau's cameo as the doctor is a fun addition to Elf. But obeying God when He tells me to sow a seed is the equivalent of Walter quitting his job to find his son.

I love living life at a quick pace and bouncing between activities and projects. I also love the spontaneous song Buddy sings to Walter when he first meets him at his office. 

But holding fast to the prophetic words God has spoken over my life and waging warfare with them until I see them fulfilled is what keeps me anchored in the whirlwind of my bubbly, extroverted ways.

My challenge to you today is to stop and ask God, “What is the underlying story You are writing in this season of my life?” Then embrace the fun of each day, each scene, but never lose sight of what’s most important!

There's so much more to discover in this edition of the Breakthrough Quarterly. Click here to keep reading!