Two weeks ago, I talked about the importance of being in some sort of small group where you can really share your life as a Christian with others. Some of you may be wondering why that is really necessary. Well, I have a completely fictionalized, yet very true-life example of why!

Saving Mr. Banks–the 2013 Disney movie about how P.L. Travers and Walt Disney came together to create the movie Mary Poppins—talked extensively about how her original story wasn’t about saving the Banks’ children, but rather was about saving Mr. Banks himself.

You see, like many people today, Mr. Banks’ world consisted of having a superficial order where his needs were first and foremost and everyone should revolve around him and his schedule. Work is what defined him—so life was great when things at work were great, and life didn’t make sense when work wasn’t going well.

I don’t want to ruin the plot for you (but the movie was released in 1964, so if you haven’t seen it yet it is hardly my fault!) but Mr. Banks loses his job as a result of a run on the bank due to his pesky kids. So, back at home Bert (played by Dick Van Dyke who just got done cleaning the chimney at the Banks’ house) talks to the children– who think they are in big trouble and are looking for sympathy from Bert who tells them, “You know, begging your pardon, but the one my heart goes out to is your father. There he is in that cold, heartless bank day after day, hemmed in by mounds of cold, heartless money. I don’t like to see any living thing caged up.” Bert goes on to tell the kids that they have lots of people looking out for them, but who looks after their father. He is carrying the weight on his shoulders and no one is there to help him when he falls.

How many people do you know that go through life this way? They carry the burdens and hard-times of this life on their own set of shoulders. Nobody is there to help them lighten the load. This is how Satan brings down God’s people. He isolates them and makes them feel like there isn’t hope and that success and failure is all on you and you alone.

So, Mr. Banks is sitting at home waiting to go back in to the office and get his hat knocked in (that must have been how you got fired back then in the bank industry) when Bert gently reminds Mr. Banks that although it is certainly important to earn a living, his children are growing up fast and they need their father. What good is making a living if you aren’t making a life for your children?

Now, of course, this was a movie, but I want to ask you who in your life needs a Bert right now? You know, when you think about it, Bert spent his time discipling people throughout the movie. Go back and watch and tell me if what he was doing wasn’t discipleship. He was never defined by his work—his work was dictated by who he was trying to disciple. One day a sidewalk chalk artist and the next a chimney sweep.

We weren’t made to go through life alone, but rather we were made to be with others! My prayer is that you have people in your life so you are never alone!

(PS…you can blame the Centurion Program for me watching every movie through a Christian worldview lens! I can’t even help it now, I just see worldview in what I watch and listen to! If you want to be trained in a similar way, check out http://www.CenturionsProgram.org )