The Church is not for perfect people. It’s for imperfect people who are working together to become fully mature in Jesus Christ. It’s the place where we rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. So for Riley, joy and sadness come together to the emotional headquarters and join fear, anger, and disgust. Riley’s emotions keep maturing with her growing self-control.
“Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.”
Proverbs 16:32
Read Proverbs 16
As you grow a stronger emotional control center, authentic emotions will work together. Sadness and joy are blended into honest emotions. When our emotions work together, we grow in our emotional health and relational health.
-What is one way you can mature through your emotions instead of running away from them?
Week 7, Day 5
Throughout the movie, we see the operations console that controls Riley. By the end of the movie, she is upgraded to a bigger emotional control center.
Let’s go back to one of the verses we have meditated on this week.
“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”
2 Timothy 1:7
Read Galatians 5 (Again)
God tells us that a life fully surrendered to Him will produce the great benefit of self-control. We can’t win at emotional maturity by our own efforts; it takes God to help us build a bigger control center.
-How are you doing in your life at becoming a safe place for your emotions to mature?
Week 7, Day 4
Another insight to becoming emotionally healthy is to never let anger, fear, or disgust take over in our life. This comes back to never letting emotions drive the vehicle.
If we let anger take control, we end up saying things we regret, and we experience even more distance in our relationships. That’s why God teaches us,
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
Proverbs 15:1
Read Proverbs 15
Disgust, anger and fear leave us running away from our problems rather than emotionally maturing through them. There are probably many times in your life when you have experienced something that caused you to question God if He’s real, and it has possibly left you angry with Him.
The thing about God is that He is quick to forgive and restore us if we are quick to confess and obey.
-In your view, is anger with God right or wrong? Explain your answer. For either answer (yes or no), tell how the answer affects what you can say to God in prayer.
Week 7, Day 3
Emotions tend to jumble up facts and opinions. They taint the truth. Often when we deal with a problem, all we see is the problem... and we get consumed by it. We get trapped in this idea that when we struggle, it disqualifies us from our potential.
Depression, grief, frustration, and other emotions do not disqualify people from leadership. Experiencing these emotions in a healthy way can give people compassion or perspective in a way that actually makes them excellent leaders.
Our truth in all things is found in Jesus Christ. When it comes to our emotions, we are encouraged in Philippians 4:6-8:
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
Philippians 4:6-8
Read Philippians 4
-Is what I’m feeling at this moment true?
-Am I keeping my emotional opinions accountable to the facts?
Week 7, Day 2
There is a healthy place for emotions in our lives. But they try to battle for control, don’t they? Emotions should be in the car, but do not let them drive the car. Don’t let emotions drive you, but you must drive them. The goal is that you are at the steering wheel, and they are in the passenger’s seat with the seat belt securely fastened.
Emotional maturity is not accomplished by putting emotions aside, pretending they have no place. When we attempt to put sadness in a circle, we often get stuck. Sadness can lead to healthy things. Sadness is a part of compassion, understanding, mercy, humility, relationships, striving, and becoming. God experienced a sense of sadness over the sin in the world. In one of the clips, Joy had a revelation – you really can’t get through something by just skipping over the emotion of sadness. Sometimes you must sit down and deal with reality.
Read John 11
Jesus showed up at the house of a friend who had just experienced loss, and he expressed empathy. Jesus experienced sadness with the loss of his friend Lazarus, but he also experienced joy when he raised him from the dead. In this fallen world, joy and sadness both have a place in healthy emotional development.
-Is it difficult for you to discuss emotions? Is it difficult for you to express sadness in a healthy manner? Explain your answer and write about a time when you experienced deep sadness.
Week 7, Day 1
Inside Out is the story of Riley – a happy, hockey-loving, 11-year-old Midwestern girl – whose world turns upside down when she and her parents move to San Francisco.
As Riley is growing and maturing into a young woman, her emotions conflict with one another – joy, fear, anger, disgust, and sadness. All these are emotions she has already dealt with throughout her life, but in the stress of moving to a new home, her emotions get heightened.
Mental health is a big thing in our culture today. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Emotions are powerful. They can take us up or down like the waves of the ocean. When they are left in control, they will certainly sink us. Have you ever felt like you’re sinking because your emotions are out of whack?
“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”
2 Timothy 1:7
In Galatians chapter 5, God tells us that a life fully surrendered to His Spirit will produce the great benefit of self-control. We can’t win at emotional well-being or maturity by our own efforts. It will take God in our lives to build a bigger board with self-control.
Read Galatians 5
-What’s one area of your emotional maturity that you can focus on this week to grow in?
Week 6, Day 6
Finn reaches a point in our movie where he is now truly part of the Resistance. He is waking up to the unseen force. He has owned his past and is redeeming his future, and he’s now running toward what matters most.
So often, we lose perspective on what really matters. It’s not until we lose something like our marriage, a friend, our integrity, that what matters most becomes crystal clear. Finn now understands exactly what matters most, and he’s living out this lesson. The Resistance matters. The lives of people in the galaxy matter. Peace and justice matter. Rey matters, and so it’s time to Run Toward what Matters Most. That’s the final and life-changing decision and action.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”
Hebrews 12:1
Therefore, let’s run toward faith, not away from it. Run toward goodness, not away from it. Run toward selflessness; run toward making your marriage work; run toward telling the truth; run toward forgiving others; run toward sobriety; run toward financial responsibility; run toward discipline, not away from it. Run toward helping others for good, not away from it. Be a force for the good God created you to do. From the beginning of God’s creation, He intended us to join Him in His good work. And though the world has been undone by sin and death, God is redeeming the world to Himself. And while we are here, we run toward the good we can do, not away from it.
Read Hebrews 10:25, Philippians 3:13-14, John 13:35, Colossians 3:12
-As you look at your life, what really matters to you? What is God calling you to run toward?
Week 6, Day 5
One of the best schemes of the enemy is to get you to run instead of taking a stand.
“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”
Ephesians 6:13
Before we can stand our ground, we need solid ground to stand on. Our past struggles, mistakes, weaknesses, and insecurities often feel like shaky ground. So the tendency is to run from our past. After all, we know our past better than anyone else. But you can’t run from it, because it follows you. The fact is that you can’t escape your past, but God can redeem it. So Lay it Down.
The apostle Paul had a past full of many mistakes. He once called himself the chief of sinners, but God redeemed Paul. God’s plan is to redeem each one of us as well.
What part of your past do you need to lay down? For Finn, it was the stormtrooper helmet. He laid it down. Along with that, he needed to lay down his past to redeem it for his future.
If you’re going to become a force for good, there are things you need to resist. There are things you need to pick up. There are things you need to lay down.
Read Revelation 21:5, Philippians 1:6, Hebrews 10:14, Romans 8:1, Psalm 103:12, Ephesians 2:1-10
-Is there something in your past that you have been running from? In what ways have you seen God redeem your past?
Week 6, Day 4
Waking up to the unseen Force is unsettling. It takes us into the bigger world, behind the world we see. It’s not for the faint of heart, but we were made for the unseen spirit world by the hand of God. We are spirit beings in the image of God, wrapped in a physical body. And God, our heavenly Father, invites us to wake up. Life is more than the physical world.
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Romans 12:2
In order to change the way we think, There are Things that We Need to Pick Up. Rey needed to pick up the lightsaber and learn about the Force. What do you need to pick up? Perhaps you need to pick up a Bible and begin to learn about your created purpose in God’s design. Perhaps you need to pick up a new habit of coming to church once a week and engage in the real conversations of life and faith. Perhaps you need to pick up the practice of prayer that wants to define your walk with God. If you’re going to become a force for good, there are things you need to resist. There are things you need to pick up.
Read Colossians 4:2, Proverbs 27:17, Hebrews 10:25, Hebrews 10:12
-What do you need to pick up? Is there a habit that you need to start, or perhaps a relationship that you need to begin?
Week 6, Day 3
There is a moment in our movie when Han is asked about the old stories of Jedi and unseen forces that can move objects and impact lives. Han turns and says, “It’s true. All of it”. There is an unseen force. It’s not just mumbo jumbo, as Han Solo once thought in his younger years. Not only in the movie, but in life, I think Han is right! He has seen into the unseen, the world behind the physical world. A realm we all need to acknowledge, and an evil that is just as real in life.
“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”
Ephesians 6:12
Paul tells us that we are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents coming from the very headquarters of evil. These forces want to control our lives and make us serve evil rather than God. Therefore, you must wear the whole armor of God so that you will be able to resist evil’s power. After all, the enemy is constantly scheming to take you down.
Read 1 Peter 5:8-9, Ephesians 6:10-18, 1 Timothy 6:12, 1 Corinthians 2:10-16
-How do you see this battle playing out in your life? How do we resist and fight the battle God’s way? Do you see a tendency for Christians to get distracted into fighting the wrong battles?
Week 6, Day 2
What do you need to resist? If your life is going to count for good, then there are things you must resist. If you are to bring about good in your marriage or family, in your friendships or among coworkers, your church, your school, your county or your country, then you will have to resist the temptations of darkness. If you had the courage to admit it, what tempts you to evil? What is it that can drag you into darkness? You need to begin to resist.
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you.”
James 4:7-8
The second lesson that Finn is going to learn is to Wake Up to the Unseen Force. We too have things that we need to resist, and an unseen Force giving us the power to change.
Read Philippians 4:8, Colossians 3:5, James 4:7-8, Luke 9:23, 1 John 2:1-6, Ephesians 4:17-32
-What area of your life do you need to begin resisting in? Have you seen the Holy Spirit working in your life to convict you and make you look more like Jesus?
Week 6, Day 1
Our story follows Stormtrooper FN-2187, or Finn, as he is later called. He realizes that in a major war of good versus evil, he is on the wrong side. He desperately wants to be something different, so he seeks to change into a force for good. Of course, this isn’t easy. It’s a struggle that will play out through the whole film. The fact is that we have a similar struggle as well when trying to change. We often want to act differently, but we don’t know how. Paul saw this struggle in his own life. To the church in Rome, he writes:
“I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.”
Romans 7:15
So how do we fight this battle that Paul speaks of? Our first step is to Join the Resistance.
The journey to become a force for good is often little steps in the right direction. While FN-2187 is not part of the Resistance yet, he has begun to resist the evil First Order. That’s where we all need to start, because evil is not a momentary indulgence of fun. It’s a consuming enemy that wants to obliterate the good. You can’t ride the fence between good and evil. There is a battle, and you have to choose a side. Will we allow evil to take over our lives, or will we join the resistance?
Read Joshua 24:14-15, Ephesians 2:10, 1 John 2:15-17, John 15
-What does real life change consist of according to God’s Word? How do you see the battle between good and evil playing out in your life?
Jackie Robinson didn’t just pave the way for himself, but for countless people who followed in his footsteps. He changed the sport of baseball because he was willing to endure, do the work, and swing at the right pitches. In the same way, we are put on earth to pave the way for others. We need to see those around us who need the light inside of us, and meet their need.
“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.”
Philippians 2:3
It is impossible to pursue righteousness if we are not willing to stand up to injustice for the marginalized, the orphan, the widow – just as Jesus did.
Pee Wee Reese got it. He realized that he needed to be willing to risk his career and his reputation for the sake of Jackie and those to follow. He made the statement, “Maybe tomorrow, we’ll all wear 42; that way they won’t tell us apart.” What a powerful statement. To be willing to risk it all for those around you. That brings us to our final lesson at bat: Don’t Forget your Teammates.
“Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”
Philippians 2:4
Who is around you? What do they need from you? These are important questions we need to ask ourselves. Because a win by yourself doesn’t end up feeling like much of a win at all. When we come alongside others and help them win too, that’s a grand slam every time.
Read Matthew 25:34-40
-Who is around you that you need to help win? How can you do that?
