August 12, 2026 – Daily Devotional
I know it’s hard to believe, but I had never watched the movie Shrek until last night. Oh my, Bob was right: this may be a movie tagged for “kids,” but to watch it as an adult is eye-opening on many levels. There’s a moment early in Shrek where our green, grumpy hero says, “Ogres are like onions.” Everyone laughs — Donkey included — because it sounds absurd. But underneath the joke is something achingly true: some of us spend our whole lives building layers. Know anyone like that? A gruff exterior. A joke to deflect. A grumpy look on their face meant to scare you off, to keep you at arm’s length. What I’ve learned is that often, it’s not because they don’t want to know you; they are simply afraid that if you peel back the layers, you won’t like them.
Shrek isn’t hiding because he’s cruel. He’s hiding because he’s been told that what he is on the outside disqualifies him from being loved. And so, he decides it’s better to reject others than to be rejected. And here’s my favorite part: Fiona happens. And the miracle of that story isn’t that she “fixes” him or that love transforms him into something more presentable. You see, she’s an ogre too. She was hiding the exact same thing — a self she’d been taught to be ashamed of, tucked away. When both finally stop pretending to be the version of themselves that they think is acceptable, what’s left is amazing. They discover each other, fully seen, and here’s the best part. It’s enough. More than enough — that’s the whole point. And yes, I cried during this part; actually, during several parts.
There’s a kind of grace in that I think a lot of us are starving for. Not the grace of being made presentable, but the grace of being known — onion layers and all — and chosen anyway. Not despite the layers. Regardless of them. Sometimes even because of them.
So today, maybe the devotion isn’t complicated. Maybe it’s just this: you don’t have to peel yourself down to something more acceptable to be worth loving. The people worth keeping close are the ones who’ll sit with you in the swamp, layer by layer, and stay.
“Better out than in,” as Shrek would say. Perhaps the musical is offering us an idea, a thought, an invitation to just be real, warts and all, as they say, allowing ourselves to be vulnerable, to the point where we share authentically, the good and the bad, the ups and downs, the doubts and struggles. I still have many layers that need peeling back. Truth is, like you, I’m a work in progress, but I love the invitation to be real, and to know that God says to me: “You are enough!” May you hear that good news this week!
Pastor Linda, Pastor of Connection
