I just watched Zootopia. I gotta say, it was exceptional. Great story, fantastic delivery, heart-pounding action, and not too predictable. However, I left the theater feeling very...off. I should say before getting into this, that there are *spoilers*; so if you haven't seen Zootopia, watch it first and then read this!
Possibly one of the greatest feelings to me is a sense of completion. When I finished writing, editing, and publishing my first book was an amazing moment. The sense of completion was mental as well as physical. In another sphere, I have run several 5k’s in my time, and no matter how hard I'm panting or how long it took, I'm always smiling when I cross that line. Zootopia left me with much the same feeling. All the loose ends of the movie were not simply tied up, but they were woven into a tapestry of an ending that made it seem as if Zootopia would actually be the utopia it seemed at the start (with a little crime solving action from our dynamic duo).
So there I was, walking out of the theater with this good feeling after having enjoyed a well-crafted movie, when it hit me. I had this unease that built in my stomach. Not something about the movie or about anything I watched, but something with me, with the world. I've felt this before after watching certain movies, but this time it was so visceral. I gave it some serious thought and the answer slowly dawned on me. I don't even have the slightest idea what the utopia I'm waiting for will be or look like. Let me explain.
Part of what makes Zootopia grab so well and give off that good feeling in the end is as old as time: good triumphing over evil. While not blatantly said, each thing Judy Hopps has to overcome is the evil. This evil is where good hasn't been realized. An example. Judy wants to be a real officer and she gets stuck with parking duty. That doesn't seem right after all her hard work and how much of a dream that is for her. When at the end her dream is finally realized, good triumphs! Other instances are when the poisoned animals are cured! Or when forgiveness is given! Even when Clawhauser gets his place back as the first face animals see entering the ZPD station! It’s wrongs being set right. Good triumphing over evil. We know all these things instinctively. We feel when a wrong is committed and we know it needs to be made right. While not as enjoyable, this is seen when the bad guy is locked away. It's all part of the conclusion of the story, which we've been waiting for since the beginning of the movie, even if we didn't know everything that needed to happen for it conclude well. What does this have to do with heaven you might ask? Well, I'm almost to that.
If that feeling of conclusion comes from knowing what needs to happen (even if "what needs to happen" changes as the story goes), then what happens if there is no expectation for what's going to happen? What if you know the end will come, but don't know what to expect, don't know what good needs to be done to set it all right? That's what struck me. I don't know what good needs to come in heaven so that all may be set right.
Now sure, I can give you a list of what I've been told all my life. Our sin nature will be destroyed, we will have a perfect relationship with God, Satan will be punished, etc. But none of it makes me lean forward in my seat, as it were, excited for the conclusion.. Instead I carry on about my business completely ignoring what needs to be set right. Tracking with me? If not, I'll try to summarize. In the movie, I wanted to see how all would be set right for Judy (wanted to see her become a full police officer, wanted to see her solve the case, wanted her to...); however, when it comes to my story, I'm not excited about when all will be set right for me. And I think that's because I don't know what that means... Sure, I want this or I want that, but what would it mean for my story to conclude? I think that was the major thought I left with from that movie.
That thought is something I can't shake right now, which is why I'm writing this. It's making me stop and wonder, what am I looking forward to? Is it no longer struggling with life? While that may seem good right now, if I look at that honestly it simply isn't compelling enough to make me excited for the conclusion. Yet, what can? I don't know. I know I'll have a perfect relationship with my savior and king, but that's so difficult a thing to grasp that I can't make sense of it enough to truly desire it. That hurts to admit. In the end, I think I simply don't know how much of me and my life needs to be set right for me to sit forward in my seat as I look toward my conclusion.
Okay, this was quite likely a very muddled attempt to describe an incredibly obscure feeling or thought. I don't know if you were able to follow along, but how about you? What things are you looking forward to being set right at the conclusion of your story? When you stand before God and he welcomes you home, what will He be setting right for you? What will He be setting right for any of us? I have Sunday school answers, but nothing that sticks. However, that's not the end, pardon the pun. That's just the beginning. If I don't know what I'm looking forward to, then it means it's high time I found out! I don't know about you, but I believe that in the end I will feel that sense of completion. I just want to be looking forward to it.
Seeking out what needs to be set right,
Joshua
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