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Inside Out 2 centers around young teenage hockey player Riley and the emotions inside her head. The one that takes up a lot of the plot of the film is Anxiety.
Now on the surface, Anxiety seems to be just what Riley needs. Anxiety is forward and future thinking. Anxiety is a planner. Anxiety specifically has a plan to help Riley with both hockey and making friends as she gets ready to start high school.
But Anxiety also causes a great deal of trouble in the film, leading Riley to shun her old friends and make bad choices she wouldn’t have otherwise. That is because while Anxiety is making plans, the emotion is also making changes to how Riley views herself and her core identity.
It is when Riley accepts the good with the bad about herself that she can start to move forward. When she has a better understanding of who she is, Riley is able to ask for forgiveness from her friends and work better with her teammates. It is putting to rest the identity Anxiety has made that allows Riley to forge a new identity and move forward in a much more positive light.
Now our identity is rooted in Jesus. It is founded in His death on the Cross and His Resurrection from the dead. It is rooted in His love and life-giving grace.
If we stay true to that identity, we too can be reformed. We can be renewed. New life will be breathed into us, if we stay true to our identity as followers of Christ Jesus.
This may seem counter-intuitive at first, looking at our readings. They all are focused on what is beyond us. All of our readings have their eye set on the end, either with death or the life beyond.
In Isaiah, we see the hope beyond if only Israel can follow the Lord, maybe even for the first time. In Revelation, we see the joy that is to come in the Heavenly Kingdom. In John, we see the end for Lazarus in his death.
Our focus on death is to show the hope we have in Jesus. In all these instances, we don’t just stop with death. We see the glory that is beyond it. Even in the Gospel, Lazarus doesn’t just stay in the cave. He rises. And we rise with him as fellow saints who have been resurrected by our Lord.
Things die, yes. But if we hold onto Jesus and nothing else, if we let Jesus in, we too will be reborn. That is why holding fast to our identity as followers of Christ Jesus is life-giving. We will be made into something new, but only if we root ourselves in Jesus.
If we allow something else to take our focus, if we allow something else to become an idol, it will be just like Anxiety in Riley’s head. Our core identity will be torn apart as we panic and don’t know what to do. If we can make Jesus our focus, then what is dead and dying will be reborn as something new.
We don’t need to fear death or anything else. With Jesus, all things are made new. That is why we are here. It is what being a member of the communion of saints is all about. Sainthood doesn’t end now or in this life. We look ahead in what’s to come where we will stand and be with the one who first shaped our identity and loves us enough to shape it still to something new and restored.