Prince Ali...

"The best I can be is Jamaican! Look... I'm telling you as a friend, if we look Jamaica, walk Jamaica, talk Jamaica, and IS Jamaica, then we sure as heck better bobsled Jamaica!" -Sanka, Cool Runnings

"The man asked him, 'What is your name?' 'Jacob,' he answered." -Genesis 32:27

I have a confession: Princess Jasmine was my first crush.

That's right, the princess with a pet tiger from Aladdin was my first taste of attraction. Of course, this was still a season of life (being a 3-year-old) even before girls had Cooties, so maybe it's not TOTALLY crazy! My first memory of wanting to choose my own Halloween costume was wanting to be Aladdin as a little tyke because maybe, just maybe, if I was Aladdin Princess Jasmine would fall in love with me.

It's all a bit silly I know, but it's hardly the only thing in my life that would fit that description.

I love Aladdin. Well, for those of you who don't know me too well, I love pretty much all of the Disney animated movies. What can I say?

But Aladdin has always been one of my favorites. Jafar was a terrific villian, especially when he turns into a giant snake! Iago might be one of he funniest sidekicks of all the Disney flicks. The genie... well, it goes without saying that Robin Williams pretty well stole the show. And the music is absolutely fantastic!

But it's funny how Disney movies change as you get older. You notice new things: new jokes you couldn't possibly understand when you're a toddler, new elements to the story, new morals woven into the plot. Maybe that's why Disney has aged so well, because there are elements for children, teens and adults alike.

Aladdin is like that. I was watching it with my roommates last year and there was a new dynamic. If you've seen the movie, you know that Aladdin is a "street rat" (basically a poor guy who steals to survive) who meets the princess and falls in love. But he's convinced a princess would never fall in love with a lowly beggar, even one with his charming good lucks and sense of humor. But he gets his golden ticket when he finds a lamp containing a genie who can grant him three wishes.

Seeing his opportunity to woo Princess Jasmine, he makes his first wish, "Genie, make me a prince!"

And a prince he becomes. He storms through the city streets of Agrabah with a parade only Disney could imagine, and with a little charm and a little singing the princess begins to fall in love.

But a funny thing starts to happen. Just as all his dreams are coming true and the girl of his dreams is flying across the world with him on his magic carpet, he begins to feel guilty. It's all a lie, and he knows it. He's playing the role of Prince Ali while being somebody totally different. He's at war with this conflict between confessing himself while also maintaining the illusion.

He's not the only one who does this though. We do it every day. I do it every day. We play roles. We become who we think people want us to be and have become tremendous at hiding certain parts of us while showing others.

Jacob was like that. All the way back in Genesis, he stole his older brother Esau's blessing from their father Isaac by impersonating his brother. He wanted to be the first born with all its privileges and honors. He wanted to be somebody he wasn't. So he fooled his blind father into believing he was his older brother by wearing sheep wool to mimic his brother's hairy arms and received Esau's blessing.

And then he had to flee. Esau, understandably, was furious, and he happened to be a much larger and much rougher man than Jacob. So Jacob ran. But after many years abroad where he married and had many children and accumulated a vast amount of wealth, he is forced to flee again and heads to return home.

But on his way home, he is met by some alarming news: Esau is headed his way! That night he splits his camp and remains alone on one side of a creek. And then a very strange thing happens: someone (and the Bible is not exactly clear who, maybe God, maybe an angel, maybe some man) begins to wrestle with Jacob. They fight all night, and eventually Jacob gains the upper hand. Holding strong, he demands of his mysterious adversary, "I won't let you go until you bless me!"

And his opponent says something very interesting. "What is your name?" he asks Jacob. It's an innocent enough question, but is incredibly profound at the same time. Jacob has been in hiding for years because he was trying to be somebody else, and now as he is preparing to meet the brother he cheated decades before, he is asked his name. He is asked to acknowledge who he is, who he REALLY is.

"Jacob," he replies. And with that, with the acknowledgement that he is Jacob, that he is nothing more and nothing less than the man God created him to be, his adversary responds, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel."

Jacob had to come to terms with who he was before he could go forward. He had to stop pretending. He had to stop hiding. He had to embrace who he was. He had been blessed by his father as Esau. This new blessing would not come until he became Jacob again.

This is our story. We're like Jacob, just like we are like Aladdin. We morph and mold ourselves to what we THINK others want us to be, what others want to hear. But what that leads to is insecurities, a war between who we are and who others expect us to be. We struggle with what we see in the mirror and what others see. And like Jacob, when someone asks, "Who are you?" we find it a hard question, as if that answer could change depending on the audience.

We've become Mr. Potato Heads, willing to replace the gifts and beauty of who God made us to be for an image others superimpose on us. And this is not a teenager thing, or a college thing, or an adult thing. It's a human thing.

But that's not what the world needs us to be. We need to be US! We need to take the passions and gifts and personalities that the Father has made us with and live into them. When Genesis says God made us in his image, I'm convinced that there is beauty in the diversity. We weren't meant to be the same. We were made fine the way we are. You don't need to become somebody else. Trust me, if God made one of them, that's enough! He wants you to be YOU. Because YOU is the best you can be! It's who God made you to be. And it is without flaw.

forever unfinished...