Disclosure: I might be on the wrong chapter. I fully admit that I've lost track... So today I read Matthew, chapter 23 and it reminded me of the movie inside out. I don't know if you seen it but it is adorable! It is the story of a little girl (that's the outside part). The inside part is the five main emotions that live inside her head and control her actions. LOL The emotions are Joy, sadness, disgust, anger, and fear. The movie explains at the beginning that Joy doesn't understand the purpose of sadness but sees how the other emotions as well as herself have a way of protecting Riley and making her life successful and happy. As the movie goes on you see how life changes for the little girl and how life changes inside her brain with the emotions that she goes through. By the end, Joy comes to understand that sadness has a purpose that she did not know (without sadness Riley wouldn't get help or comfort when she is overwhelmed.) I thought it was really cute and fun to watch. The way that this movie reminded me of Matthew 23 - when Jesus is scolding the scribes and Pharisees, we see that they are only concerned with their outside parts, the parts of their lives that other people see. They didn't understand that it is the inside that we need to deal with first and, it is our inside, our heart that will determine our ultimate character and actions. Also the scribes and Pharisees did not know themselves. They thought they were better off without Jesus. They truly thought they were superior and that Jesus was distructive and harmful. The hardest part about this is that we often look at the scribes and Pharisees and do not see ourselves. But Jesus did not put this passage in the Bible because it doesn't describe us, but rather because it does. We have to watch out that we don't become arrogant. We need the Bible to make us self aware of what we are. Just like in that cute little movie when the inside starts to become regulated the outside will have success. We need to have hearts that are seeking Christ on the inside and our outward actions will follow. :-)
