Don’t Wish Yourself Away

Christmas weekend we took our grandchildren to see the new Narnia movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In this story Lucy is fixated on being as beautiful and popular as her older sister Susan, and in one scene stands in front of a full-length mirror comparing her appearance to Susan’s. As she stares at her image, she sees herself morph into Susan. She then steps into the mirror and finds herself at an outing where she is the center of attention. As she basks in her new-found popularity, however, she discovers that when she became Susan, Lucy had ceased to exist, either in the past or the present. As a result, all of Lucy’s contributions to the family had disappeared along with her, and Narnia had never been discovered. Lucy is then pulled back through the mirror and Aslan appears beside her. When she asks what happened, he replies, “You wished yourself away.”

I believe that this may be the most important lesson in this latest theatrical release in the Narnia series.  It is a lesson that is especially appropriate for this time of year when many of us are preparing our New Year’s resolutions—most of which will be some version of losing weight and/or going to the gym regularly. As a society we long to be someone “better” than who we are. We are constantly exposed to people who are better looking, smarter, better educated, and more successful than we. As a result, we try to remake ourselves into their images. We begin to believe that if we were better looking, smarter, better educated, or more successful that other people would value us and we would lead more fulfilling lives. We end up wanting to be almost anyone other than who we are.

It is, of course, important to always look for ways to improve ourselves, but it is equally important to recognize that we already have value. God loves diversity and he made each of us unique. While it is true that you cannot become someone else, it is equally true that someone else cannot become you.  You have special work to be done in a special way that is unique to you. If you were suddenly to morph into that person whom you admire so much, who would do those things God entrusted to you? The truth is that God’s world would have a little hole in it shaped just like you.

I hope that as you prepare your New Year’s resolutions you will give serious thought to the things that need work in your life and make a genuine effort to improve in those areas. I also hope that you will remember that you are God’s unique creation. He made you exactly the way He wanted you to be, and no one else can take your place. Whatever else you do in the New Year, don’t wish yourself away.