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Today's post is on Reflection from Mulan! If you need them, you can find lyrics here.

In case it's been awhile since you've seen my middle school favorite movie, let's set the story up. The Chinese culture portrayed in Mulan prizes men who defend home and country and women who bear sons to those men. In order to become a wife, you have to impress the matchmaker with a very specific set of skills that all Chinese girls of any status were trained in from a young age. Mulan has just put on the make-up and dress needed to impress the matchmaker and visited her for her test of wifely qualifications. Needless to say, it didn't go well at all. In fact, using the words "total disaster" would not be off the mark. So now Mulan is wandering around singing about her sorrows. Let's look a little deeper at the lyrics.

Mulan is expressing three things:

- Frustration at the impossibility of achieving social expectations

- A disconnect between who she is and who she's pretending to be

- Inner conflict between a desire to be truly understood by her family and knowing they would be crushed by her admission.

Mulan feels she has a choice between two evils: pretend for the rest of her life and feel dishonest to herself OR be who she thinks she is at the cost of her family's honor. Is this a false choice? Let's look at each point and then come back to this question.

We'll take the first two at once. To start, let's just agree that social norms can be stinkin' hard. Every culture has it's own "things" that you have to do in order to be accepted and successful. Some people manage to skirt the "rules," but most have to adapt or be relegated to the outside. But what about from a Christian worldview? Should we try to conform to social norms or be who we feel God made us? I think the answer is a little bit of both.

Since we are called to be in the world, ministering to people in one way or another, that means we have to have social interaction. There may be some things we have to adapt and change about ourselves and our way of doing things that aren't pleasant but need to be done for the sake of the gospel. On the flip side, we can't sacrifice our morals for being liked, and if we're changing for the sake of worldly success and are sacrificing God's call on our lives in the process, obviously that's bad.

As far as the third point goes, we can't be honest with other people about ourselves only so far as we think it won't hurt them. There are times when we have to keep things to ourselves, but more often than not, the people closest to us want to share our burdens with us.

Back to the earlier question. Is the choice Mulan presents a false one? Is there another option, or will one choice or the other be better or at least not be as hopeless as she thinks? Looking at it from a biblical worldview, that depends on what Mulan is called to do. If she is made the way she is so that she can fight the Huns and save China, then she absolutely should not stuff herself into the box of social expectations. On the other hand, if she is just called to be a mother (which would make for a severely more boring movie), then she should trust that God has her best interests at heart and will provide strength and purpose along the way.

It's easy to listen to this song and think, 'I'm not content where I am. Maybe I'm called to something greater and more heroic than washing these dishes. I had better get out there before I miss the opportunity!' The reality is yes, you probably are called to something greater. We all have room to grow in listening to the Holy Spirit and following through on the missions He gives us. However, those missions might just include washing dishes with a smile. Don't overlook the mundane and anti-heroic. If you feel like you aren't where you belong, ask questions, pray about it, but be open to the possibility that you're exactly where God wants you and you just need to put your heart into it. He'll provide the strength.