The Lion King and Shame

I teach through the content of my book at least six times a year at the local treatment center. I'm always amazed at the clarity that showing clips from The Lion King movie bring to the teaching. It's a real eye opener to people. It's a movie that most people have seen but they've never seen the teachable moments. Let me lay out the basics;

• The roots of Simba's shame: trauma, abuse, ridicule (he saw his father killed)
• The lies of shame: "It's my fault" and since he felt disqualified... "I'm not the king"
• The fruit of believing these lies: Isolation. He ran away from his community.
• The solution: His father told him..."Remember who you are", that is, the king.

We live what we believe even if what we believe is wrong. How many of us have put a limit on our success and happiness because we don't believe we deserve it?  What if success and happiness wasn't related to deserving it? What if success and happiness was a gift given by a loving God? If you were to believe THAT do you think things might change?


In the movie, Simba chose to believe he was the king and in remembering who he was he returned to take the throne. The emotional high point of the story is when  he climbs Pride Rock to claim his rightful role as king. I wonder...what will it take to reclaim your rightful place in life?

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