Encanto: How Spiritual Gifts Can Create Division Instead of Unity
Coming up on the Men at the Movies podcast, we explore different archetypes of spiritual gifts in Encanto. Mirabel represents those of us who feel invisible, less gifted, and left out. Louisa and Isabel reveal the constant pressure our gifts can create—the pressure to always show up, always be perfect, and always say yes. In Bruno, we see how our gifts can even screw things up, be seen as unhelpful and unwanted. It’s only when we learn to value the person over the performance that we can truly be a unified body of Christ. We don’t talk about Bruno…but we will as we discover God’s truth in this movie.
Quotes
Mirabel looks at herself through the lens of other people, and feels less than.
If you just look at all the things you can’t do, you will never grow or develop.
My role does not define my responsibility.
Our job is to see the people behind the gifts.
We want to shine, but feel like we’re on the sideline.
Louisa and Isabella both feel pressure that Mirabel doesn’t experience.
They felt like their performance and productivity were more important than their presence.
How the gift impacted the family was more important than the person who was a part of the family.
Your gifts will only go as far as your unity allows them.
We have to learn to value the person over what they can bring.
Themes
The danger of holding onto things too tightly or trying to be perfect
Spiritual gifts: The pressure of feeling gift-less vs the pressure on the gifted
Three types of people represented: the gifted, the ungifted, and those with “useless” gifts
Purpose is to serve the family. A gift is always for someone else.
Our gifts reveal our responsibility more than our roles.
Have the capability to cause division and isolation, when their purpose is to provide unity.
Having less obvious gifts can lead to a feeling of invisibility, being unappreciated and overlooked.
The gifted may feel under pressure to perform, be perfect all the time, to always say yes.
Development of gifts may mean mistakes, but growth comes through learning.
Bruno felt like his gift was unwanted, actually hurting the family.
Resources
“The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit. Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. 19 How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” - 1 Corinthians 12: 12-20 (NLT)
“But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first.” - Revelation 2:4-5 (NLT)
“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” - Matthew 25: 14-30 (ESV)
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” - John 13:35 (NIV)
“If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.” - 1 Corinthians 13: 1-3 (NLT)
Questions
Which character do you resonate with?
What are your gifts? How do you use them?
What gift do you wish you had? What’s behind that desire?
How has your role defined your responsibility?
Where do you feel left out of the family picture?
Where do you feel invisible? Unappreciated?
Where do you feel pressure to be perfect? To always show up?
What would it be like to let someone else do it, and fail?
What would it be like to take a break?
Do you feel like you can’t afford a mistake?
How do you respond when you feel like your gift isn’t helping? Isn’t wanted? Not useful?
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Edited and mixed by Grayson Foster
Logo and episode templates by Ian Johnston
Audio quotes performed by Britt Mooney, Paul McDonald, and Tim Willard, taken from Epic (written by John Eldredge) and Song of Albion (written by Stephen Lawhead).
Southerly Change performed by Zane Dickinson, used under license from Shutterstock.
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