The Much Needed Baboon

Avery’s new favorite movie is The Lion King. She sits perfectly still for the entire two hours—I’m not sure she even blinks—hanging on every word. Then, she’ll spend the rest of the day singing, “Can you feel the love tonight?”

I try to redirect her by belting out, “In the jungle…The mighty jungle”, but she always gives me the look. It’s a look I’m quite familiar with—“Dad, you really can’t sing.”

I must admit I do enjoy the film. In fact, I had forgotten how much it parallels life. The scene where Scar blames the young and impressionable cub for Mufasa’s death, and then proceeds to tell him to “run away and never come back” is a page directly out of satan’s playbook. Shame drives us to run and hide. Then, it’s easy to forget who we really are.

Enter Rafiki. 

This is my favorite scene. The wise old baboon presses Simba on an important question: WHO ARE YOU? After Simba admits that he doesn’t know who he is, Rafiki excitedly proclaims, “You’re Mufasa’s boy!” The exchange between the two is silly and cute, but it’s actually quite profound. 

Rafiki is leading Simba back to his true identity. He’s challenging him on a deep level. Simba shows initial resistence (he calls Rafiki a “creepy little monkey”), but something within him eventually comes alive. His eyes are opened, and he discovers that he’s living a shadow of the life he was created to experience.

We all need a wise old baboon who’s willing to remind us who we are and who we belong to. Someone willing to challenge us on a deep level and speak the words we need to hear.  Have we given anyone permission to speak this candidly to us? If not, are we willing to invite this kind of truth into our lives? 

I wanted to make sure Ashley knew she had permission, so I approached her a few days ago and said, “You’re a baboon”.

She gave me the look. It's a look I'm quite familiar with...