Wreck-It Ralph: I'm Bad, and That's Good?

Confessions from the Bad-Anon Chair

Arcade machines. Candy cart racing. Shameless quantities of puns. 80’s video game cameos.

I loved Wreck-It Ralph from the moment I laid eyes on the promotional materials. I watched it in the theater too many times and have plopped its dvd into the player often enough to make it feel loved.

I even use it as a paramount example of excellent story telling when I teach the Hollywood formula to my G/T students.

And that was before I even recognized its spiritual value.

Something about this movie soothes me.

Satisfies me.

How about you?

Is it because Ralph realizes he needed a friend, not a status symbol? Is it because he finds family in the same community that originally rejected him?

Those are amazing social messages.

But there's something even deeper in this movie’s code.

And King Candy had nothing to do with it.

Bad-Anon

Bad-Anon Meeting from the film Wreck-It Ralph

“I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad.”

This.

This is the chant at Bad-Anon, where the big, bad bosses of different video games connect weekly to cope with the fact that they are programmed to be unlovable and antagonistic. It's the video game equivalent of Alcoholics Anonymous or Celebrate Recovery for these characters struggling with the nature of being programmed to be evil in a world that only rewards heroes.

The other characters in the group, including Bowser, Zangief, and M. Bison, are at a closer level of self-acceptance than Ralph who has been declining invitations to attend for years.

When we play video games, we tend to identify ourselves with the hero, but if we are honest about our raw state, our actual humanity, we belong right there at the Bad-Anon meeting in a chair next to Ralph.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

— Romans 3:23 (ESV)

Does that rankle you a little? Nobody likes to be told they need therapy. Maybe that's why Paul constantly has to make his point:

"None is righteous, no, not one."

— Romans 3:10 (ESV)

Have you come this far? Can you accept it?

Can you sit in a circle and say, “I'm bad…”?

In religious-talk, we call that confession. It means admitting you can't fix yourself.

And “that's good”!

Because the pain of confession brings the freedom of repentance. Repentance is the surrender of yourself, your will, to a higher power…to the work of the Holy Spirit, made available to you because of Jesus’ work on the cross and the empty tomb.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

— 1 John 1:9

If you have surrendered your life to Christ, then you've already got the first part of Bad-Anon down!

Here's the part I struggle with…

Sanctification

“I will never be good, and that's not bad.” -Ralph

There's a kind of striving inherent to the Christian life that can't be avoided.

I want to be like Jesus. I want to live every day to feel feelings, speak words, do things that would be what He would do.

And I fall short. I screw up.

Like a lot.

It seems to be getting worse as I get older.

Or maybe I'm just more aware.

I know my self-judgment isn't biblical.

Even Paul couldn't get it right all day every day.

"For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want."

— Galatians 5:17 (CSB)

In case Paul isn't convincing by himself, the apostle John who literally rested his head on Jesus and took care of His mom says,

"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

— 1 John 1:8 (ESV)

The truth?

I don't have a magic hammer I can use on myself at will.

I won't ever catch up to God's definition of good while I'm still in this flesh.

But I don't like that.

My pride, my ego, says I need to be closer to perfect.

I want the magic hammer.

But what did Jesus say at His last meal with his closest friends before crucifixion?

‘Go out there and NAIL IT, GUYS!’

No.

Not biblical.

He said:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

— John 15:5 (ESV)

Acceptance

“There's no one I’d rather be than me.” -Ralph

Jesus wants us to abide. He wants our focus to be on being connected to Him. If we do that, the rest will happen on its own…because of Him.

That's what real sanctification looks like.

Not striving to master spiritual disciplines.

Not keeping my attitude in check 24/7.

It's a posture of worship, like Mary at Jesus’ feet.

It doesn't mean you don't try. Let's clarify with Paul:

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

— Romans 6:1–2 (ESV)

What abiding means is that your trying looks different. It looks like more surrender. Dependence. Humility. More God working and less of yourself.

So, the question now is not just do you recognize that you are bad, but can you accept that you will never be ‘good’?

Can you just be yourself long enough to sit at the Lord’s feet–glitchy, wrecked, broken–and let Him work in and through you?

Because there's no one He’d rather you be, either…

Than the you He’s touching and transforming you into right now.