Spoiler Alert! Finding Dory is a visually dazzling, compelling, and heartwarming story about a fish who overcomes significant challenges and learns to celebrate her abilities. "We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them." - Romans 12:6 After a lifetime of dwelling on her inability to remember, Dory realizes that she has amazing gifts which have inspired others to do amazing things they would have never done had they not known her. She begins to ask "What would Dory do?" with the recognition that Dory would do something courageous and Dory would be persistent and never give up! We too have each been given amazing talents by God - some we may be aware and some may as of yet be undiscovered. We bring glory to God when we use these gifts to be fully alive. I need to learn to ask "What would Brian do?" We should all learn to ask this question of ourselves and celebrate the God given uniqueness of the answer. "Be conformed to the image of his Son" - Romans 8:29 As we grow in faith our lives become centered on Christ. We learn how our greatest gifts and talents conform us more closely to him. As my life becomes centered on Christ, asking "What would Brian do?", asking what someone with my unique gifts and talents would do in this scenario, becomes the same as asking "What would Jesus do?" because my will is conformed to his. This is what it is to be fully and authentically human, for our lives to be centered on Christ so that we are conformed to him and so we celebrate and practice all of the talents that God has given us. "As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace." - First Peter 4:10 Finally, in addition to showing us how to celebrate our gifts, Finding Dory shows us that our gifts are meant to be shared with others. As amazing as the gifts are that God has given us we must also recognize that we all have limitations. Dory cannot remember, Nemo has a gimpy fin. However, we also see that often times one characters greatest challenge is another character's greatest strength. This is most clearly seen in Destiny's greatest challenge which is her lack of sight and in Bailey's greatest strength which is his amazing sight achieved through echolocation. Bailey exclaims to Destiny, "I will be your eyes!" As we conform ourselves to Christ and become fully alive by activating the gifts God has given us, we learn to share those gifts with our neighbors. We will find that it may be our neighbors greatest gifts that can help us overcome our greatest challenges. And that is a lesson worth remembering!
