When Titanic came out, fans went to the theater and watched it over and over a crazy amount of times, like twenty or thirty. Sometimes they had all the dialogue memorized, but still couldn't wait to see it again. It sounds a little bit like adversion therapy gone wrong, but sometimes you just want to get lost in another world, even if it is a cartoon one.
I've seen Lion King a whole bunch of times, and I know I will see it lots more in the future. But from now on, I will process the plot more thoughtfully as opposed to being just swept away by the wonder of Africa.

Like Simba, we are all just growing into ourselves and figuring out who we are; everyone has so much potential. It's really a question, how to invest ourselves. You really have to ask God. Reaching our potential shouldn't be equated with sucess, that's the easy standard. Like Br. Lawrence, you could be called to practice the presence of God in the ordinary, then again, you could be called to put your life on the line like Su Kai or Dr. Martin Luther King.

There is a slogan in American associated with an advertising campaign for African American scholarships, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." But there are so many casualties, people who are wasted due to circumstances beyond their control. Then again there are people who shoot themselves in the foot time and time again, getting distracted and diverted who end up frittering their life away. The Buddha almost did that, ditto St. Augustine. Thank goodness Jesus did not; and scripture tells us he was really tempted by worldly greatness. The thing about Jesus that we are not told, so I'm just guessing, is that he probably was most tempted by the thought of being just like everyone else- working at his trade, raising a family and hanging out with his friends and using just enough of his divinity to pull out a handy miracle when someone he loved needed it. He could have lived a happy, long life that way. Simba had it better than Jesus in that respect, he had responsibilities, but his valor and strength saved his life and he went on to live the life of a lion.

Finally, what is a blog without getting wierd, but how much of a role does the "watcher" have... if Jesus had been killed as a "cub" (and he almost was by Herod) before anyone outside of his family or the wise men knew he was the son of God, what effect would that have had on salvation etc.? Did God have a Plan B up his sleeve just in case? Or would we have had all the benefits of grace without knowing any of the story? Maybe God had already been onto Plan Z with us, but because we kept putting monkey wrenches into the works.