The Lion King and Shame

Maggie, Tiki and I went to see The Lion King a few days ago and it was really good.  I loved how close they stayed to the original cartoon, too.  Throughout the movie, I was struck by the role shame plays in Simba's life and how it relates so much to real life.

For the "shame" takeaway, the characters are:

• Mufasa:  God
• Scar:  Satan
• Simba:  Man
• Timon & Pumbaa:  New Friends
• Nala:  Old Friends
• Pride Rock:  "Home"
• The land where Timon & Pumbaa live:  Run Away Land

It was so interesting to me to watch shame play out-- it played out like it did in the garden with Adam and Eve and it played out the way I have seen it play out closer to home. . . .

Simba was casually following Scar into the gulch to prove something.  At that point, it was fairly harmless just as it is in life.  Often, we need to prove something to ourselves or to others and it is fairly harmless, but in proving something, we are walking beside Satan because of pride.  Ultimately, because Simba was in the gulch, Mufasa died.  Simba didn't kill Mufasa, but Mufasa was trying to save him.  After Mufasa died, Scar comes back into the picture and lays on the shame relentlessly.  Simba then goes on to believe the lies that Scar is telling him and Shame causes him to run from Pride Rock.  He ran and "hid" because of Scar's lies and his own shame.  He left his home and he left the people he loved and the people who loved him because he believed the lies Scar told him and he was filled with shame as a result.

Simba then met up with Timon and Pumbaa.  They are good characters.  They are kind and carefree and they welcome Simba with open arms.  Simba is thankful to be with people who don't judge him and who don't question his past or what circumstances brought him to the seeming paradise of Run Away Land.  Timon and Pumbaa are not villains and they are not bad characters.  I think their only flaw is that "Hakuna Matata" is the easy way out.  "No worries" seems so enticing and so easy and Simba gets caught up in it and he forgets where he came from and he forgets what responsibility he has back at Pride Rock.  In forgetting, the shame takes a back seat and Simba is "free."

Nala finds Simba and helps to remind him of who he is and ultimately, Simba returns to Pride Rock and it is awful.  Scar is in charge, it is desolate and bleak.  In order to get Pride Rock back to the "glory days" of Mufasa, it is going to take lots of work and lots of time.  The animals are all gone, the foliage is all burnt.  Run Away Land seems much more appealing than Pride Rock, but because Simba remembers who he is, he faces his inner demons and his past and his shame and decides to go back home.

And they live happily ever after.  (Wouldn't that be nice in real life?)

But I was so struck by the role shame plays and how clearly The Lion King shows us that.  Had Simba not listened to Scar and returned home to Pride Rock immediately, the story would have looked very different.  We would have never met Timon and Pumbaa, we would never have gotten "Hakuna Matata" stuck in our heads and the story may have seemed very safe and very boring.  It definitely wouldn't have been movie worthy.  But Scar used the lies of shame to evict Simba from his home and his place as the King of Beasts and Simba ran.

How often do we run away from the pain because of shame?  How often is that shame just lies that Satan tells us?  How often do we leave home and those we love behind because of lies and shame?  How often is Run Away Land (wherever that is, maybe a place, maybe a Netflix binge, maybe a good book, maybe a new city) so beautiful and enticing and how often are the people we surround ourselves with in Run Away Land great people, but people who don't ask questions and don't hold us to a higher standard.  They say "no worries" and you go along enjoying your new life forgetting who you actually are?  (Meanwhile, those who love you are left sad and missing you).

Going back to Pride Rock is hard.  It is hard because, since you've been gone, it has become a desolate place covered in dark clouds, and hard because you have to face the people you left.  But those people missed you and they want you home!

Shame and the lies Satan tells us about ourselves in relation to shame blind us and make us deaf to God.  We are so filled with shame that we can't even hear the voice of the Lord, the Lord who sacrificed His life for our own.  And then we stay stuck because as we become blind and deaf to reality, the new life seems so perfect and so enticing and we appreciate that no one is judging us or pushing us towards a better us or calling our actions into account.  It seems so safe and the shame seems to be gone!

Brene Brown says that shame needs three things to grow: secrecy, silence and judgement.  Even though it seems like shame isn't growing in Run Away Land, it is.  It is growing and festering.  Interestingly enough, Brene Brown also says that with empathy, shame dies.  With someone who knows you saying, "me too," shame is no more.  The empathy resides in Pride Rock because the people who love you and who truly know you inside and out are there.  So, the very place you are running from is the only place that can heal your wounds.

The live action Lion King was good.  I highly recommend it, but the picture of what it looks like to walk as a Christian was better for me.  We stumble and we get tempted and Satan lies to us and Run Away Land is beautiful and worry free.  Sometimes home is hard and ugly and unbearable and sometimes it is that way because we caused it or sometimes it is that way because our mind perceives it as that way (and it isn't really that way at all).  We can bow to the lies and run into the arms of people who "accept" us without a care in the world, yet they don't hold us to a higher standard, or we can go back to the only people who can kill our shame with love and empathy.  Pride Rock isn't always the most enticing, but it is home and it is where we belong. . . . and it is where happily ever after ultimately resides (if only after this life is over).  

From the sky Mufasa says, "Simba, you have forgotten me.  You have forgotten who you are and so forgotten me.  Look inside yourself, Simba.  You are more than what you have become. . . .  Remember who you are.  You are my son. . . .  Remember."  When you look at yourself, do you see The Father or your own reflection?  Do you need to remember who you are?  Do you need to forget the lies the enemy tells you?  Remember!