Falling with Style is Still Falling

Unless you’re a hermit, you’ve seen Toy Story and likely remember the scene where Buzz seems to soar around Andy’s room. Woody is certain of Buzz’s failure and hopes for his doom. When Buzz returns to Andy's bed, Woody delivers the classic line:

“That wasn’t flying. That was falling with style!”

We are talking about sin, and it won’t be the last time. Talking about sin comes with a responsibility that other theological realities do not. When we get sin wrong, hurt and suffering are the result. People abandon the Church, lose hope in God, and begin to forget the dignity of their brothers and sisters. If we fail at teaching and discussing sin, many other theological dominoes fall.

At Costly Things, I’ll be referring to sin in the context of a wound. Some wounds are self-inflicted. Some we earn by our humanity. But all wounds need care. The more serious the wound, the more intensive and comprehensive the care must be. We also have to remember that this Fallen World is a kind of battlefield. Pope Francis was fond of calling the Church a field hospital for the wounded.

In battle, the medic doesn’t care how you got wounded so much as where, and what to do about it. He doesn’t judge, doesn’t scold you for forgetting your training. He sees your need and responds.

It’s an analogy and a reality that deserves its own post, but I want us on the same page before we begin.

So what does Toy Story have to do with sin?

Let’s go back to Buzz. In that scene, Buzz doesn’t fly. He bounces and ricochets like a ball in a Rube-Goldberg machine. There’s a lot of physics and luck involved—but no flying. Buzz, and the rest of Andy’s smitten toys, either don’t see or don’t care about the truth. The only toy rooted in the reality of the universe (ruled by Mattel and Hasbro) is Woody—though his clarity comes laced with resentment.
“You are a toy! You can’t fly!”

This is one facet of sin: it can appear flashy, novel, even virtuous. So many are drawn in that those with a Christ-centered worldview may begin to feel like Woody: “Why can no one else see this for what it is?”

Buzz isn’t trying to deceive anyone. He genuinely believes his catchphrase: “To infinity… and beyond!” But no matter how much Slinky Dog or Rex or Potato Head want to believe him, the truth remains—Buzz is just falling, and doing it with flair.

Yet the inability to accept reality results in danger not only to Buzz, but to other innocent toys. Sin never occurs in a vacuum; even our most "private" errors ripple outward, affecting our families, friends, coworkers, and beyond.

The Need for Wisdom

This is why we need Wisdom, one of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Wisdom allows us to clearly see reality and order our lives accordingly. Living outside of that is foolishness.

C.S. Lewis captures this spiritual dynamic brilliantly in The Screwtape Letters. In the world of demons-in-training, success doesn’t look like a grand act of evil. It looks like convincing someone that their preferences are sacred. It looks like justifying anger to protect pride. It looks like missing the mark, but saying “close enough.”

The enemy’s tactic isn’t to demand we renounce the light—it’s to slowly, subtly, lead us away from it while convincing us we never needed our eyes to begin with.
It is to convince us that we're flying and, if we're falling, we're doing so with style.

The Spiritual Journey: Purgative to Illuminative

This reflects the spiritual journey from the Purgative Way—the first stage, where we confront and renounce sin—into the Illuminative Way, where we begin to live more deeply in grace and spiritual clarity.

Here, the soul is sifted like wheat and tried in the crucible. By now, we’ve left grave sin and destructive habits behind. We begin to see clearly how deficient we are in living in friendship with God without His grace and help.

It is here that Wisdom, Humility, and grace reveal how often we confuse progress for spiritual inertia.

Sin in Subtle Forms

I’ve often heard Christians lament that sin isn’t talked about enough. I agree.

One reason may be that most of us understand sin only in terms of the Ten Commandments or obvious wrongdoing. We see the "big picture" but miss the nuance—the subtle ways we still cling to ownership of our hearts. Because of this, we carry on with attitudes and behaviors that may not be grave, but still hold us back from becoming saints.

And the Devil is more than content to let us flounder here, spinning our spiritual wheels and making no progress.

The Enemy is very, very good at what he does. He’s been studying us since Genesis. He does not sleep. He rarely asks us to rebel directly or openly. Instead, he twists the truth just enough that we stop noticing the difference.

He invites us to the “wide path,” promising comfort and ease, but leads us through thorns and confusion. He tells us to take the shot, and when we miss, assures us: “You gave it your best.”

What Christ Offers Instead

But Christ did not come to help us fall with style.

He came to teach us how to walk in the Spirit—and to make us new.

The spiritual life is not a path of comfort. Consolations come, but the Cross is not optional. It is only through Christ’s grace and our cooperation that we are changed into “new men,” as St. Paul says.

Practical Next Steps

So, when you sit down for your nightly Examen or prepare for your next Confession, ask the Lord to show you the blind spots.

Ask for clarity and Wisdom to see the cracks in your armor and attachments that keep you from being holy today.

Ask to see where you trick yourself—or are fooled by the Enemy—into believing you're flying when you're falling.

Ask for the grace not just to fall with style, but to rise with Christ.

With that grace, you and I can one day stand before the Lord and say:

“I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”
— 2 Timothy 4:7