My daughter’s wish for her senior-year fall break was to go to Disneyland. Once we reserved our hotel, bought tickets for Disneyland, and arranged our schedules, I thought the planning was over. It was not. Camille (my daughter) and Angel (my wife) began spending quite a bit of time perusing Disney apparel online. It turns out we weren’t just going to show up at Disneyland in any old outfit, we were going in style. And we were going to match.
I was handed my Mickey Mouse shirt as we packed and told this was what I would wear (I would be matching our son, Soren). Camille and Angel, meanwhile, wore matching Minnie ears and red tank tops. It seemed a little over-the-top to me, but I’ll do anything for my family. On the day of our Disney adventure, we woke up early, got into the virtual queue for the Star Wars ride (which happened to be the best ride at the park—don’t miss it!), and strode out of our hotel down Disney Way. It was then I began to notice something: we were not alone. We passed group after group in matching outfits. “Ahhhh,” I thought, “this is what people do!”
The phenomenon is startling. No less than half of those at the park were decked out in Disney paraphernalia, and most of those who are wearing Disney gear are doing so in coordination with those they came with. On top of shelling out a few hundred dollars to enter the immersive world of Disneyland, people pay Disney more money to buy their shirts, ears, and princess dresses to show just how much they love Disney.
And, of course, the spending doesn’t stop there. There are Disney pins, lightsabers, and hats (the one with Donald Duck’s bill doubling for the cap bill had me smiling) to be procured. Disney turns the apathetic into consumers, consumers into fans, and fans into ambassadors.
How? And why are we all too willing to follow along?
You could ask the same question of fans who spend big dollars to watch their football team in person when they could watch them for free at home. Similarly, fans show up wearing a jersey they spent another $120 on. Or how about the guy who doesn’t just give Harley Davidson his business when he decides to buy a motorcycle, but then buys the shirt, the jacket, and the hat?
What inspires this devotion and desire to show the world of our commitment to Disney, the Packers, or Harley Davidson?
To Be Part of Something Bigger than Us
Much is made of our desire for individuality. And we all do want to stand out to a certain extent. But just as important to us is our desire to be part of something bigger than us. Walt Disney and his brother Roy founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio on October 16, 1923. He introduced the world to Mickey Mouse in 1928 with the short Steamboat Willie. Nine years later, he would finally release his first full-length feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Thirty-two years after founding the company he opened Disneyland.
Walt Disney desired to give families a place where dreams could come true. That dream is chugging along nearly 100 years and several generations later. Whether you fell in love through Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, or Frozen, you believe that your love will be passed on to the next generation. Your passion will last beyond your lifetime.
We all long to be part of something where our dreams come true. We want to share experiences with our children and our grandchildren. We want to be remembered and remembered fondly. We want to leave something better for our children. We want to be part of movements that outlast us.
To Pledge Allegiance
There is in us a longing to commit ourselves to something. We root for the Chiefs and root against the Raiders. We are team Marvel, and give a side-eye to those inferior DC Comics people. Dogs are the best! Cats are the worst! We want to pick a side and connect with those in our group.
It’s not surprising that Disney has created two theme parks within its gates with more than a dozen “lands” within those parks. And within each land, multiple sub-brands are represented. In other words, Disney allegiance begins as a connection not to their overarching brand, but to a love for a subcategory within their brand. While at Disneyland you’re likely to meet hard-core Donald Duck enthusiasts standing next to huge Black Panther admirers who are alongside Star Wars fans and flanked by Moana devotees. To be a fan of any of these franchises is to be a fan of Disney. We want to be part of a team and feel a kinship with others who appreciate the same music, movies, sports teams, or Disney characters that we do.
We want to experience committed connection. That allegiance begins at a particular, not universal level.
To Feel Something
The modern world numbs us. The average American spends more than five hours a day on his or her phone.[i] We know that social media use is directly linked to a decline in mental health and sleep. We are bombarded by negativity and enticed by envy. To protect ourselves from the digital onslaught, we become calloused. But we weren’t meant to be calloused, God created us to feel.
One of the lures of Disney is the ability to feel. We feel nostalgic when we ride through “It’s a Small World,” we feel a rush of exhilaration when we zoom through the twists and turns on “Space Mountain,” and our hearts burst with joy at the refrain of “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” at the close of “Splash Mountain.”
We want to experience moments of transcendence that move us.
An Invitation
As fun as being a fan of Disney or the Dodgers might be, I don’t think you need me to convince you that these commitments will ultimately fade. A commitment to Christ and his kingdom will last into eternity. Your investment into Christ, his work, and his community will give you an identity that anchors you in a way that these commitments never can. What you pour into Christ and his church will be multiplied into eternity. The relationships you form will last, the work you do, the financial investment you make will not return void.
What if you felt as much pride in your local church as you did in your local team? What if you experienced the goodness of Christ so deeply that self-consciousness embarrassment melted away and you shared the gospel with the friend that you know needs to hear the hope of Jesus’ rescue? What if you poured finances far greater than your tithe into kingdom endeavors? What if you experienced the love God intends for you not merely in the abstract, but in the particular?
What it Means for the Church
There is instruction here for the church as well. We ought not shy away from the God-given impulse God has given us humans to be part of something bigger than us, to pledge allegiance to something, and to feel something. Sometimes our churches can be so wary of the competing voices and commitments that our people experience in this world that we shy away from calling people to a higher commitment. We are afraid of calling people to plant their flag and call church home. Don’t shy away from this. There may be many competing activities in this world, but church is the best one! There may be a lot of groups, teams, and organizations people can invest in. There is none better than the local church!
Let’s not drop the bar out of fear of people backing away. Know your value and your impact and call people to invest through their time, talents, and treasure.
Let’s also not be afraid to help our people not only to know, but to feel the gospel. God has made us as embodied and feeling creatures. Christ wants us to feel and to experience, not just to know.
Some of us are so wary of false wares of the prosperity gospel that we shy away from the audacious promises Christ makes about his kingdom. Let’s not be so cautious that we shrink the grandiose claims of the gospel.
Photo by John Beeson