United Methodist Church Westlake Village

What Lilo and Stitch Teaches Us About Unconditional Love and Faith

• United Methodist Church Westlake Village

Share episode

Send us a text

Ever set out on a journey only to realize you're woefully unprepared? Like hiking up steep trails to Griffith Observatory in completely wrong footwear? These moments of physical discomfort mirror something deeper about our spiritual lives—the persistent "thorns" we can't seem to overcome no matter how hard we try.

The Apostle Paul knew this frustration intimately. His mysterious "thorn in the flesh" became the focal point of repeated prayers for relief. Three times he begged God to remove this weakness, whatever it was. But instead of healing, Paul received something far more profound: "My grace is sufficient for you." With these words, everything shifted. What had been merely an annoying limitation became a powerful reminder of divine love. The very weakness that frustrated Paul transformed into a blessing—a constant reminder that he was fully accepted despite his imperfections.

This transformative power of grace finds an unexpected parallel in the animated world of Lilo & Stitch. Much like Paul's journey, Stitch begins as a creature defined by destruction and deemed irredeemable. But through Lilo's persistent acceptance and the Hawaiian concept of "ohana"—that family means no one gets left behind or forgotten—Stitch experiences profound transformation. Not through demands or expectations, but through unconditional love that remained steadfast even when he failed spectacularly. The parallels to spiritual grace are striking; both reveal how acceptance creates the space where genuine change becomes possible.

Whether you're struggling with your own personal thorns or seeking to understand how grace operates in real life, this exploration offers hope that our limitations need not be overcome to be blessed. They might themselves become blessings when they remind us of our shared humanity and need for love. Next time you find yourself with the wrong shoes on a difficult path, remember: sometimes our greatest growth happens not despite our weaknesses, but because of them. Who in your life might need to experience this kind of transformative, unconditional love today?

Support the show

Speaker 1:

I don't know if any of you have had the experience when you're hiking or on a long walk and you realize you brought the wrong shoes Right. Have you been in that experience and you know you're committed Like there's no other way this is going to go. I did that particular thing on the hike up to Griffith Observatory and we went up one of the steep ones. Anybody ever go up by where the Bat Cave is oh, there's a new adventure for some of you. Well, it's pretty steep to get up and then you walk over to the Hollywood sign and then you walk back over to the Griffith Observatory and then you walk down sign and then you walk back over to the Griffith Observatory and then you walk down and by the end of that day you've put I don't know seven, eight miles, a lot of it up and down hills. Have you guys been to Griffith Observatory? All right, we know that a little bit. Anyway, wrong shoes, didn't know we were going to be doing that kind of hiking.

Speaker 1:

And it made me think of this passage with Paul and this thorn in his side. It makes me think of like having a rock in your shoe or something, this thing that just consistently annoys you and bothers you and even hurts you to a certain extent. But what's interesting with Paul is that he is pleased with this thorn that he has in his side. It's in this letter that he writes to the church in Corinth. He writes about this thorn. It's a certain weakness in himself, something that he can't quite overcome himself, something that he can't quite overcome control and the more of Paul you read, you'll realize he really likes to control and be in control. And so he's really frustrated that he can't overcome this weakness in his faith, this thorn that he has, and he gets frustrated with it and he asks God to take it away three times Take this away, make me better at this, make this a strength. But instead he gets the same response from God. My grace is sufficient for you. What I like about that response. I'm giving a thumbs up to God's response. I don't know if you're noticing this, but I'm like, hey, good one, god you know, because I think God needs my affirmation now and again.

Speaker 1:

With God's response the whole experience shifts. Now he's not just feeling the frustration of this thorn, but it's become a different experience. It's become a reminder of something. Previously it was this reminder of shortcomings that he had weaknesses that he had. But now it's a reminder, a whole different reminder, this one of assurance, right that even despite this feeling, this weakness he feels that he has, despite that, god still loves him, god is still offering unconditional love. God's grace is still with him. So what used to be an annoyance, an injury, a pain, now is a reminder of that love, of that presence, maybe even a reminder that he didn't need to overcome that weakness. It wasn't a thorn he had to figure out how to pull away, but maybe something that was more positive, a reminder that he's human, not expected to be any more than human, and could sit in comfort and confidence in that place.

Speaker 1:

I think that's how that thorn becomes a blessing. That's why he appreciates this thorn. It actually helps him to grow in his faith because it's that constant reminder of God's presence, that constant reminder of who God wants him to be and who he wants to be. And for me it's a message of grace. Being that United Methodist kid again back to grace and God's unconditional love. You know, for me and for lots of United Methodism, grace is the driver. That's the thing that gets us to want to go deeper in faith. We get a little taste of that unconditional love and that assurance and we, just we want more. And it's what lands me with Lilo and Stitch. So, just so I know who I'm talking to out here, how many people have seen Lilo and Stitch, any of the versions? Okay, maybe a third or so. All right, I'm going to give my recommendation. You ought to check it out. Recommendation you ought to check it out. Lilo and Stitch Now my good friend, Claudia West I'm calling out right here in this moment says you know, I went and watched that and I didn't like it so much that Stitch is terrible and they're all laughing at him.

Speaker 1:

Claudia was a teacher, so I totally understand where she's coming from. When you get the roustabout in the middle of the classroom and you got 29 other kids and this one's going and everybody's laughing at the troublemaker, I get it. But Still to me there's this story, this heartbeat underneath, about the journey that Stitch takes. So I'm going to tell you really quickly the story of the movie. Stitch is not an animal or anything that we would understand in this world, because he comes from some other planet, some other world. Yes, it's an animated Disney movie, so just roll with me on this and the movie opens with him being tried for being just this roustabout, this monster, this whatever. And they can't get him under control and they bring in the inventor who invented him to try to explain, figure out how to control him, and they said, no, there's no saving this thing, he's just this monster that wants to destroy and be angry. And so he gets banished. But I believe he ultimately kind of escapes his banishment and ends up here, away from those tormentors that he had, and he lands on earth, luckily landing in Hawaii, this teeny little island, because he wouldn't have survived landing in water.

Speaker 1:

Right and there on this island he meets up with this little girl, lilo, and Lilo is somebody who's having trouble socially. She's having trouble keeping friends or having friends being nice to her. She's a little bit unique. She tends to react back and doesn't help herself with those things. But ironically she's dealing with a little bit of the same thing that Stitch is dealing with, just on a smaller level of feeling rejected.

Speaker 1:

Stitch is dealing with, just on a smaller level, feeling rejected, feeling pushed out, and so she acts out with some microaggressions against folks in the way that Stitch acts out with macro aggressions and starts destroying things, but he manages to convince Lilo that he's a dog and not this alien creature, and she takes him in and they go on this journey, this journey of Lilo, who needed that friend, that pet, so that she could feel warm and have somebody to give her love and affection to, even though this stitch was really kind of ruining their lives over and over and over again, she had that love for this stitch that just kept playing out over and over again, no matter all the calamity that this stitch brings. Well, finally, as movies often do, it comes to its climax and the alien people have finally caught up with Stitch. They're ready to take him back to where he's supposed to be and imprison him because he's been so terrible. And in the neat Disney moment at the end, they realize that he's been changed by this experience, by this love that this little girl and this family had offered to him. They have this phrase in Lilo and Stitch ohana, which Hawaiian meaning family, but for them family meant no one is left behind and no one is forgotten. That love changed Stitch. Instead of the rejection that he had been receiving and the frustration he'd been receiving, he received love, and not just love, but unconditional love. He knew he had destroyed the life of this little family and they still loved him.

Speaker 1:

So when I watch Lilo and Stitch, for me it's just this living example of what the power of grace can do. When we can love others unconditionally, they can be changed. It's not automatic. So I know many of us have walked that journey before, but I'm willing to bet, because we found ourselves here, that people have seen the other case too, and seeing that unconditional love change a heart, awaken somebody to how they're loved and not only that, how they can share love with the world and hope with the world.

Speaker 1:

So, friends, with this movie and we're having some fun with movies this summer and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I will enjoy it, and if you don't enjoy it, we'll see you in September. But I think this movie comes with an invitation. It's an invitation to remember. You don't know who you're going to meet in your day-to-day life. You don't know who's going to need that experience of unconditional love in their life. And as we take communion here later and we're looking to soak up God's and Jesus's strength, his courage, maybe we can remember too to have the strength, the courage to share that love with a world that really, really needs it. Amen, amen.