Missiology From the Borderlands: Musings on Reality from the Happiest Place on Earth
Tonight, I’m one of thousands of people at the Orlando airport located not far, but worlds away from the happiest place on earth. The terminal is thick with Mickey Mouse roller bags, Mickey Mouse ears, Mickey Mouse keychains, Disney-themed socks, jackets, and pajama bottoms.
Disney, so they say, is a magical place designed to create happiness, to evoke childhood memories and nostalgia. This design includes immersive experiences and sensory stimulation —underground rumblings, a whoosh of salty air, gourmand fragrances, memorable ballads, and the wide-eyed, painted smiles and friendly embrace of our heroes Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
A behind-the-scenes tour reveals a small sampling of the magic behind Disney’s appeal.
Smellitizers: carefully crafted fragrances that evoke the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
The 30 Foot Rule: Most people, Disney observed, take thirty steps before discarding their trash. So, to ensure a litter-free environment throughout the park, trash cans are placed exactly thirty feet apart.
The Mickey Track: This all-digital audio and computer system is designed to make smart decisions related to parades and crowd control, track the movement of various floats through sensors embedded in streets, and manage the 200 different speakers around the park.
Storytelling by Design: Imagineers utilize visual literacy and incorporate color, shapes, and forms to communicate with and guide guests.
Guestology: Committed to customer satisfaction, guestology anticipates guests wants, needs, preconceived notions, and feelings. The goal: to create an experiences that resonate with each individual.
Disney’s world is a memorable, masterful, artificial reality. And, for some reason tonight, this artificiality awakens my inner-philosopher.
What about AI…do we passively accept the fact that technology knows us so well because it tracks every move we make? Are we able to see through this artificiality?
On the one hand, AI satisfied millions of Disney vacationers the world over this weekend and allowed me to conduct “finger-tap research” for this post.
On the other hand, a closer look at AI prompts a wary concern. We must realize that AI soothes us by enabling compulsive consumption, tempts us with artificial hook-ups, cares for our well-being by providing made-to-order therapists.
Should we so readily and passively accept this alternate- reality?
I caught this on substack this week—a thoughtful, heartfelt analysis of the GenZ’s profound loneliness, relational disconnect, and isolation. It deserves our attention and feeds my unrest. Let us be warned.
Do not succumb to a passive embrace of AI, refrain from lazily allowing AI to churn out your research papers or to craft your poems, to parody your musical talent or to be your best friend.
AI unchecked will suck the heart and soul and grit out of real, true, life.
I believe our view of reality deeply influences our understanding of God and the gospel, or more accurately, our view of God and the gospel is meant to deeply influence our understanding and perception of reality
For this reason, we cannot cave into the cultural fable that it is okay to be biblically illiterate … but I digress.
In tangible, tactile ways real true life is the ultimate immersive experience, it taps all of our senses. The Creator who spoke the universe into existence—the One whose breath gives us life, who took on real flesh, who died and now lives, knows us, loves us, is with us through thick and thin.
Missiology from the Borderlands involves an attentive readiness, especially in the so-called Happiest Place on Earth. On this late night in August, this real-life-immersive-experience includes a delayed flight and hours of waiting alongside the many not-so-happy-Disney-weary children.
I wish, I wish upon a star that Disney designed airports.
