What Lilo and Stitch Teaches Us About Unconditional Love and Faith

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Ever set out on a journey only to realize you're woefully unprepared? Like hiking up steep trails to Griffith Observatory in completely wrong footwear? These moments of physical discomfort mirror something deeper about our spiritual lives—the persistent "thorns" we can't seem to overcome no matter how hard we try.

The Apostle Paul knew this frustration intimately. His mysterious "thorn in the flesh" became the focal point of repeated prayers for relief. Three times he begged God to remove this weakness, whatever it was. But instead of healing, Paul received something far more profound: "My grace is sufficient for you." With these words, everything shifted. What had been merely an annoying limitation became a powerful reminder of divine love. The very weakness that frustrated Paul transformed into a blessing—a constant reminder that he was fully accepted despite his imperfections.

This transformative power of grace finds an unexpected parallel in the animated world of Lilo & Stitch. Much like Paul's journey, Stitch begins as a creature defined by destruction and deemed irredeemable. But through Lilo's persistent acceptance and the Hawaiian concept of "ohana"—that family means no one gets left behind or forgotten—Stitch experiences profound transformation. Not through demands or expectations, but through unconditional love that remained steadfast even when he failed spectacularly. The parallels to spiritual grace are striking; both reveal how acceptance creates the space where genuine change becomes possible.

Whether you're struggling with your own personal thorns or seeking to understand how grace operates in real life, this exploration offers hope that our limitations need not be overcome to be blessed. They might themselves become blessings when they remind us of our shared humanity and need for love. Next time you find yourself with the wrong shoes on a difficult path, remember: sometimes our greatest growth happens not despite our weaknesses, but because of them. Who in your life might need to experience this kind of transformative, unconditional love today?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I don't know if any of you have had the experience
when you're hiking or on a longwalk and you realize you brought
the wrong shoes Right.
Have you been in thatexperience and you know you're
committed Like there's no otherway this is going to go.
I did that particular thing onthe hike up to Griffith

(00:25):
Observatory and we went up oneof the steep ones.
Anybody ever go up by where theBat Cave is oh, there's a new
adventure for some of you.
Well, it's pretty steep to getup and then you walk over to the
Hollywood sign and then youwalk back over to the Griffith
Observatory and then you walkdown sign and then you walk back

(00:45):
over to the GriffithObservatory and then you walk
down and by the end of that dayyou've put I don't know seven,
eight miles, a lot of it up anddown hills.
Have you guys been to GriffithObservatory?
All right, we know that alittle bit.
Anyway, wrong shoes, didn'tknow we were going to be doing
that kind of hiking.
And it made me think of thispassage with Paul and this thorn

(01:08):
in his side.
It makes me think of likehaving a rock in your shoe or
something, this thing that justconsistently annoys you and
bothers you and even hurts youto a certain extent.
But what's interesting withPaul is that he is pleased with
this thorn that he has in hisside.

(01:31):
It's in this letter that hewrites to the church in Corinth.
He writes about this thorn.
It's a certain weakness inhimself, something that he can't
quite overcome himself,something that he can't quite
overcome control and the more ofPaul you read, you'll realize

(01:52):
he really likes to control andbe in control.
And so he's really frustratedthat he can't overcome this
weakness in his faith, thisthorn that he has, and he gets
frustrated with it and he asksGod to take it away three times
Take this away, make me betterat this, make this a strength.

(02:14):
But instead he gets the sameresponse from God.
My grace is sufficient for you.
What I like about that response.
I'm giving a thumbs up to God'sresponse.
I don't know if you're noticingthis, but I'm like, hey, good
one, god you know, because Ithink God needs my affirmation

(02:34):
now and again.
With God's response the wholeexperience shifts.
Now he's not just feeling thefrustration of this thorn, but
it's become a differentexperience.
It's become a reminder ofsomething.
Previously it was this reminderof shortcomings that he had

(02:56):
weaknesses that he had.
But now it's a reminder, awhole different reminder, this
one of assurance, right thateven despite this feeling, this
weakness he feels that he has,despite that, god still loves
him, god is still offeringunconditional love.

(03:17):
God's grace is still with him.
So what used to be an annoyance, an injury, a pain, now is a
reminder of that love, of thatpresence, maybe even a reminder
that he didn't need to overcomethat weakness.

(03:37):
It wasn't a thorn he had tofigure out how to pull away, but
maybe something that was morepositive, a reminder that he's
human, not expected to be anymore than human, and could sit

(04:04):
in comfort and confidence inthat place.
I think that's how that thornbecomes a blessing.
That's why he appreciates thisthorn.
It actually helps him to growin his faith because it's that
constant reminder of God'spresence, that constant reminder
of who God wants him to be andwho he wants to be.
And for me it's a message ofgrace.
Being that United Methodist kidagain back to grace and God's

(04:31):
unconditional love.
You know, for me and for lotsof United Methodism, grace is
the driver.
That's the thing that gets usto want to go deeper in faith.
We get a little taste of thatunconditional love and that
assurance and we, just we wantmore.

(04:56):
And it's what lands me withLilo and Stitch.
So, just so I know who I'mtalking to out here, how many
people have seen Lilo and Stitch, any of the versions?
Okay, maybe a third or so.
All right, I'm going to give myrecommendation.
You ought to check it out.
Recommendation you ought tocheck it out.
Lilo and Stitch Now my goodfriend, Claudia West I'm calling
out right here in this momentsays you know, I went and

(05:19):
watched that and I didn't likeit so much that Stitch is
terrible and they're alllaughing at him.
Claudia was a teacher, so Itotally understand where she's
coming from.
When you get the roustabout inthe middle of the classroom and
you got 29 other kids and thisone's going and everybody's

(05:39):
laughing at the troublemaker, Iget it.
But Still to me there's thisstory, this heartbeat underneath
, about the journey that Stitchtakes.
So I'm going to tell you reallyquickly the story of the movie.
Stitch is not an animal oranything that we would

(06:01):
understand in this world,because he comes from some other
planet, some other world.
Yes, it's an animated Disneymovie, so just roll with me on
this and the movie opens withhim being tried for being just
this roustabout, this monster,this whatever.
And they can't get him undercontrol and they bring in the

(06:23):
inventor who invented him to tryto explain, figure out how to
control him, and they said, no,there's no saving this thing,
he's just this monster thatwants to destroy and be angry.
And so he gets banished.
But I believe he ultimatelykind of escapes his banishment
and ends up here, away fromthose tormentors that he had,

(06:48):
and he lands on earth, luckilylanding in Hawaii, this teeny
little island, because hewouldn't have survived landing
in water.
Right and there on this islandhe meets up with this little
girl, lilo, and Lilo is somebodywho's having trouble socially.

(07:08):
She's having trouble keepingfriends or having friends being
nice to her.
She's a little bit unique.
She tends to react back anddoesn't help herself with those
things.
But ironically she's dealingwith a little bit of the same
thing that Stitch is dealingwith, just on a smaller level of
feeling rejected.

(07:33):
Stitch is dealing with, just ona smaller level, feeling
rejected, feeling pushed out,and so she acts out with some
microaggressions against folksin the way that Stitch acts out
with macro aggressions andstarts destroying things, but he
manages to convince Lilo thathe's a dog and not this alien
creature, and she takes him inand they go on this journey,

(07:55):
this journey of Lilo, who neededthat friend, that pet, so that
she could feel warm and havesomebody to give her love and
affection to, even though thisstitch was really kind of
ruining their lives over andover and over again, she had
that love for this stitch thatjust kept playing out over and

(08:22):
over again, no matter all thecalamity that this stitch brings
.
Well, finally, as movies oftendo, it comes to its climax and
the alien people have finallycaught up with Stitch.
They're ready to take him backto where he's supposed to be and
imprison him because he's beenso terrible.
And in the neat Disney momentat the end, they realize that

(08:47):
he's been changed by thisexperience, by this love that
this little girl and this familyhad offered to him.
They have this phrase in Liloand Stitch ohana, which Hawaiian
meaning family, but for themfamily meant no one is left

(09:08):
behind and no one is forgotten.
That love changed Stitch.
Instead of the rejection thathe had been receiving and the
frustration he'd been receiving,he received love, and not just
love, but unconditional love.

(09:30):
He knew he had destroyed thelife of this little family and
they still loved him.
So when I watch Lilo and Stitch,for me it's just this living
example of what the power ofgrace can do.

(09:50):
When we can love othersunconditionally, they can be
changed.
It's not automatic.
So I know many of us havewalked that journey before, but
I'm willing to bet, because wefound ourselves here, that
people have seen the other casetoo, and seeing that

(10:11):
unconditional love change aheart, awaken somebody to how
they're loved and not only that,how they can share love with
the world and hope with theworld.
So, friends, with this movie andwe're having some fun with
movies this summer and I hopeyou'll enjoy it as much as I

(10:32):
will enjoy it, and if you don'tenjoy it, we'll see you in
September.
But I think this movie comeswith an invitation.
It's an invitation to remember.
You don't know who you're goingto meet in your day-to-day life

(10:54):
.
You don't know who's going toneed that experience of
unconditional love in their life.
And as we take communion herelater and we're looking to soak
up God's and Jesus's strength,his courage, maybe we can
remember too to have thestrength, the courage to share

(11:17):
that love with a world thatreally, really needs it.
Amen, amen.