A few days ago, I came across a post from Disney+ Spain playing with the idea that all their characters have a main mission and a side quest. The joke was about flipping them: Troy Bolton had to make sure his singing career didn’t distract him from his true mission, which was always having perfect hair; Aladdin couldn’t let winning over Jasmine and defeating Jafar stop him from going to the Agrabah market with Abu; and Thor had to remember that being the God of Thunder was secondary to his main mission: being the most handsome Avenger. <\/p>\n
Beyond the joke, the post got me thinking. We’re used to saying that our lives have a mission, that no one is here by chance, and that God calls each person to do something unique. I think we pretty much agree on that. But what would happen if, within that great mission, we also discovered small side quests that we need to resolve, work on, or where we are called to serve? <\/p>\n
Joseph Campbell studied the mythical tales of different cultures and found that many shared a similar structure. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em>, originally published in 1949, he described what we know as “the hero’s journey”: a character receives a call, leaves their known world, goes through trials, finds allies, faces a great crisis, and returns transformed. <\/p>\n His proposal deeply influenced the way characters and stories are built for cinema. However, characters don’t just move toward one big goal. Along the way, minor conflicts, unexpected relationships, and tasks appear that might seem secondary, but they allow the protagonist to grow and prepare to understand the meaning of their mission. <\/p>\n Troy Bolton must decide who he wants to be without letting others’ expectations force him to choose between basketball and music. While he discovers his own voice, he’ll have to win a game, rehearse a musical, look after his relationship with Gabriella, and, of course, keep his legendary hair in place. <\/p>\n Cinderella dreams of a life free from humiliation, but her story is also full of small side quests: taking care of her friends, staying kind in the midst of injustice, making it to the ball, and ensuring a glass slipper survives a hasty escape.<\/p>\n Rapunzel wants to leave the tower and discover the origin of those lights that appear in the sky every year. To do it, she’ll have to trust someone, face her fears, discover who she really is, and learn that a frying pan can be used for much more than just cooking. <\/p>\n Buzz Lightyear believes his mission is to protect the galaxy, though his true journey consists of accepting that he is a toy and discovering that this doesn’t make his existence any less valuable. Meanwhile, he must face Zurg, get back to Andy’s house, and learn how to be Woody’s friend. <\/p>\n Nemo wants to get back to his father, but first he’ll have to survive in a fish tank, trust characters he barely knows, prove he can fend for himself, and cross an ocean that seems way too big for such a small fish.<\/p>\n Timon and Pumbaa seem to have chosen a mission of living without worries, eating bugs, and teaching “Hakuna Matata” to anyone who will listen. However, when the decisive moment arrives, their side quest leads them to leave their comfort behind, accompany Simba, and help him take back his place. Maybe that mission wasn’t so secondary after all. <\/p>\n The Christian life also has a main mission. We were created to love, to live as children of God, and to turn our existence into a response to the love we have received. That mission, shared by everyone, then takes a concrete form: marriage, the priesthood, consecrated life, a profession, a family, a service, or a particular way of giving ourselves to others. <\/p>\n However, that vocation isn’t realized only in big decisions. Within it, many side quests appear: accompanying a friend going through a hard time, learning to listen to someone in our family, reconciling with someone, taking on a responsibility no one else wants, caring for those who depend on us, putting our talents at the service of a community, or daring to start something that can do good for others. <\/p>\n Sometimes we wait for God to reveal an extraordinary mission to us while ignoring the small calls He has placed right in front of us. We want to know what we should do with our whole lives, but maybe today our mission is to do a job well, call someone who feels lonely, ask for forgiveness, or pay attention to the person right next to us. <\/p>\n In the Gospel, Jesus announces the Kingdom of God and walks toward fulfilling the Father’s will, but his journey is full of encounters that might seem like interruptions: Zacchaeus up in a tree, Bartimaeus shouting by the side of the road, a Samaritan woman by a well, a family worried because the wine has run out, or children the disciples want to push away. Jesus doesn’t see these people as distractions from his mission. Each encounter becomes the specific place where that mission is carried out. <\/p>\n Maybe we should learn to look at our own stories that way. There are people, tasks, and needs that appear without being in our plans, but they can become a call. Not everything unexpected comes to pull us off the path; some things arrive precisely to show us where it continues. <\/p>\n It’s true that we can also fill our lives with activities to avoid facing the important questions. We can keep ourselves busy, accept every proposal, or start a thousand projects to avoid asking ourselves what God wants from us. That’s why we need to discern. <\/p>\n An authentic side quest doesn’t pull us away from love or contradict our responsibilities. It helps us step outside of ourselves, puts our gifts at the service of someone, and produces fruits of self-giving, communion, and hope. It might tire us out and even force us to change our plans, but it doesn’t empty our lives of meaning: it expands it. <\/p>\n Furthermore, side quests aren’t less important just because they’re small. Sometimes, a conversation, a favor, or a seemingly insignificant decision ends up changing someone’s life. We might forget that gesture, but the person who received it might hold onto it for years. In God’s logic, the small things are never irrelevant when they are done with love. <\/p>\n Maybe your main mission isn’t completely clear yet. That’s okay. Great characters don’t know everything that awaits them from the start either. The mission is discovered by walking, going through trials, accepting help, and responding to the calls that appear during the journey. <\/p>\n That’s why, besides asking yourself what your life’s mission is, maybe today you can ask yourself a simpler question: what small mission is God entrusting to me right now?<\/p>\n Maybe you don’t have to save a galaxy, leave a tower, or cross the ocean. Maybe you just have to listen, care, forgive, try again, or dare to take the next step. It might seem like a side quest, but it’s possible that, precisely through it, you’re starting to discover what you’ve been called for. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Discover how small everyday missions can help you recognize your vocation and God’s call in the midst of daily life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[552,496,729,728,727,493],"class_list":["post-6013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflection","tag-christian-vocation","tag-gods-call","tag-heros-journey","tag-life-purpose-2","tag-side-quests","tag-vocational-discernment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inquietar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inquietar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inquietar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inquietar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inquietar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inquietar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inquietar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inquietar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inquietar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inquietar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The small missions of every day<\/h2>\n
Not every side quest is a distraction<\/h2>\n