Christmas Movie Messages After Hours

This is Hans Schile from the Finishing Well Podcast.

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Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Yes, it is an adventure deep in the bunker. This close to Christmas Eve is when this is being released, so you might actually hear this on Christmas Eve. Pretty exciting. And at this point in time, there will have been a Joyride episode, so all kinds of adventure. As the topic this week, Sam, you set it up since it was your idea.

Okay. A couple weeks ago, I started watching some Christmas movies, trying to get in the Christmas spirit, and being intentional about watching them this year. And I started with Home Alone. Not Die Hard? Not Die Hard. That's still on my list.

It may stay on the list, but it's still on the list. Just for the record, that is a Christmas movie. I mean, it's been noted as a Christmas movie now. No, it had Christmas in it. And they play it every Christmas all day long.

On some channels. Yeah, well, there's a record, and let the record state that Harold and you both think it's a Christmas movie. And Andy.

And Andy. Do you think that? How many people in the studio currently think that Die Hard is a Christmas movie? All right. I think you got it.

Four to four. Just like you said in the main show. I mean, there's a lot of disruption and dismantling going on in that. It sounds like. With terrorists and everything else. Yeah. But let's get back to an actual, like.

Yeah. So what the topic is, as we dance around it. Thank you, David, for your disruption and dismantling of our topic. So I'm watching Home Alone, and so I get to the scene where John Candy is in it with the mom, and they're talking. And it's a scene about woundedness. Our kids getting wounded.

That's what the mom's worried about is Kevin getting wounded in this whole situation and how horrible of a parent she is. And so as I'm watching it, I'm like, that's really a masculine journey topic in the middle of a Christmas movie. And then realize that almost pretty much every Christmas movie has a masculine journey topic in it.

Because masculine journey comes from the Bible, and all good stories come from the Bible. So that's really pretty cool. And so that's why we're doing.

We're getting messages from Christmas movies. In this case, a two-put player. Yeah.

But let me set it up a little bit more. So what you have going on is the mom's trying to get home from Paris. They flew over. If you haven't seen the movie, it's like 30 years old. Come on. I mean, you should have seen it by now.

They've done like five or six of them. But anyway, so she's trying to get home, and she can't get home. It's Christmas time, and she ends up at an airport in the States. And she has to ride in the back of a rental truck to get home with a bunch of people. It's in a polka band.

And John Candy's the leader of the polka band. And they're talking about, she's talking about how bad of a parent she is. And he starts out by telling her how bad everybody is.

And then shares a little bit of his story. So let's go ahead and listen to it. I'm a bad parent. No, you're not. You know, you're beating yourself up there. Well, this happens. This thing happens.

You know, gee, you want to talk about bad parents? Look at us. I mean, we're on the road 48, 49 weeks out of the year. We hardly see our families. You know, Joe over there, gosh, you know, he forgets his kids' names half the time. Ziggy over there, he doesn't even, he's never even met his kid. Eddie.

Let's just hope none of them write a book about him. Tell me, have you ever gone on vacation and left your child home? No.

No. But I did leave one at a funeral parlor once. Yeah, it was terrible, too. You know, I was all distraught and everything, you know, the wife and I. We left the little tyke there in the funeral parlor all day.

All day. You know, we went back at night when, you know, when we came to our senses. And there he was, apparently he was there alone all day with a corpse. He was OK, you know, after six, seven weeks.

I came around, started talking again. But he's OK. You know, they get over it. Kids are resilient like that. Maybe we shouldn't talk about this. You brought it up.

I'm just trying to cheer you up. When I'm watching that, I just start thinking about, you know, people do not understand our woundedness. And often we don't understand our own woundedness. The good news is we don't have to because we have a Father that does.

You know, our Heavenly Father does. And he'll lead us through those things and help us to get healing. You know, because a lot of times we just diminish woundedness. You know, you have John Candy's character going, well, kids are resilient to a point.

Six or seven weeks without talking. Yeah, probably needed some therapy, a couple other things going on there. But yeah, it's just that woundedness is so much a part of everybody's story. Right? And unfortunately all those wounds happen around Christmas time.

You know, and so there's a lot of opportunities for it. But the cool thing is you can always turn to God and say, God, help me deal with this. Help me learn from it.

Help me to walk into this and get some healing. And so that's why I chose that clip. So speaking of woundedness, Harold. Are you talking about all the wounds I've suffered this evening leading up to this? Sir, Harold had kind of a unique view of a Christmas movie. No, very unique for Jim's sake. Well, in thinking about a movie that would demonstrate some of the characteristics of the masculine journey, I picked this one because it's dealing with rescuing the beauty and a battle to fight.

And that was why I chose it originally. But another thing has occurred to me that Jesus came into a battle where he was grossly outnumbered, outgunned in some respects, but he didn't shy away from the battle. And he fought it through and won. So that's what this movie shows me is determination on the part of someone who's not willing to see his loved one. So just for those of us humorous that have never seen the movie, I've heard this clip to know there's a great deal of shooting. What is actually happening kind of – I know this is the trailer, but I didn't get a sense of anything other than a great deal of gunfire. When he says that, for those of us that haven't seen it, I think – has everybody else seen the movie?

So it's just you. Well, there might be a listener out there like me that's never – Well, a group of terrorists have taken over this big building and taken a lot of hostages that they're threatening to kill, and in fact do kill some. There's a lot of brutality in this movie. If you can't stand gunfire and people walking on shattered glass barefoot and so forth, you don't want to see it.

But if you're able to watch – So are you saying that in this movie there are actual people that walk on shattered glass barefoot? Yeah, he does. Why? Because he had to – Bruce does.

Your man. He had to move from where he was to where he needed to be. And in order to get there, he had to walk across where glass had been.

Why didn't he have shoes? I forget. Now you're getting a little deep here. Sorry, I just had to – you know, inquiring minds. You got to watch the movie to find out where he is. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you got me hooked. So anyway, he – He is a hero in the biggest sense of the word. I mean, he ranks right there with Stallone and others into some of the stunts that he pulls off, things that would amaze you. And he's estranged from his wife.

He's a New York cop, and he comes to L.A. She's in L.A., and he comes out there to save her and stuff, which makes it very heroic, and it's a good ending from that standpoint. Yeah. Well, don't ruin it for me. There he goes. So are you ready for the clip? Fire it.

All right. It's Christmas Eve in L.A. California. Is Daddy coming home soon? Well, we'll see what Santa and Mommy can do, okay? And New York cop John McClane has come to see his wife.

I missed you. Instead, he's going to have to save her. Sit down. Within this skyscraper high above the city, 12 terrorists have declared war. They're about to be told a lesson in the real use of power.

There is brilliant Because I am interested in the $640 million in your vault. As they are ruthless. But I'm telling you, you're just going to have to kill me.

Okay. We do it the hard way. Now, the last thing McClane wants is to be a hero. Where's Holly? That sucker! But he doesn't have a choice. What does he think he's doing? Good job. They have already killed one hostage.

This channel is reserved for emergency calls only. Lady, do I sound like I'm one of the pieces? He's inside? Who is it? Who are you then? You have lost Robertson for a security gun.

Sorry, wrong guess, huh? Would you like to go for double jeopardy? Do you really think you have a chance against our sadistic cowboy? Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker.

You just destroyed ability. I am in charge of this situation. I got some bad news for you. Come up here that look like you're in charge of jack.

He's a low, he's high, and he hasn't seen dipping squat from anybody down here. That was colorful, Harold, when I got to hear it. So, yeah. So he rescues the beauty, even though he had to go through a battle.

It sounds like it. So he was on very much of a masculine journey. So, Danny, you know, really this clip speaks to some, you know, you really were pointing out at your Bible study the other night. I bet you lost me. Sunday morning? Oh, Sunday morning, yeah. We were talking about the pastor's message was on the shepherds and that scene around Bethlehem. And as I was reading it, I thought about all of a sudden there was a host of heavenly angels.

And we've talked about it right here, about the host has reference to military and, you know, battle. And I'm thinking, why did we need a host of angels around a couple of shepherds? And what I realized was, because John Eldridge makes the case, and I read about it and talked about it in a larger story in Revelation 12, is another view of the manger scene where it talks about the red dragon ready to devour the child. So what you saw there was the navy seals of heaven protecting the king. And that's kind of what I laid out to my prayer group on Sunday, and, you know, the shocked faces of. But one man did say he had a red dragon at his manger scene, so I thought, he's my friend. He was a missionary, yeah?

Yeah, that's my friend. And so we had talked about a couple of weeks ago, there in Genesis, I think it was chapter 2, right at the beginning, God made all of the host, is what it says, when he made all of the host. And when you look at that word in Hebrew, it's quite clearly an army.

I mean, it's translated host there, but many, many times in the Scripture it's translated army. And so as we talk about larger story, you know, what kind of story is God telling that these major armies are on the field? Like, you know, you go to a movie like Dry Heart in Harold's Defense, and you begin to see all this weaponry. You know, there's a big thing going on.

This is, you know, there's a story to be told. And clearly, there was a lot of weaponry there on that night. In my defense, they don't have guns in Braveheart, but they kill just as many people. Yeah, probably just as gory, you know. Yeah, it's the whole D-Day invasion. Oh, the more I think about it, Harold, the more I like your clip.

Too bad you didn't come to that conclusion about an hour ago. Well, I mean, when you get down to it, we're talking about battle and the heavenly host and all that stuff. But, you know, straight from, you know, the core desires, the Lord is a warrior, the Lord is his name, and how he comes after his people. Jesus' invasion, there was a heavenly host to protect Jesus, but I believe it was also an invasion of the kingdom coming. And the first entrance of God in human flesh on the earth, and, you know, that was an invasion. Satan thought he had the world for himself. Well, right after the Revelation 12, with the birth, it says a war broke out in heaven. Yeah, right, right. And normally, you don't think in modern American culture church, heaven is this place, but all of a sudden, wait, a war broke out in heaven? What's happening here? Yeah, well, again, our battle is not against flesh and blood, but spiritual forces in high places, and if some of those aren't the bad guys, you know, there ain't no battle.

That's right. And so away you go. So we got one more clip and one more exciting Christmas movie that isn't quite as intense as Die Hard.

I don't know. It's pretty intense. There's a war going on. If you're Jack Lemmon, you know, he's got his hands full. Walter Matthau was a force to deal with. Yeah, they're a force to deal with, as you'll find out in the clip a little bit. But I was trying to figure out, because there's so many different Christmas movies, and there's so many different themes that we talk about in The Masculine Journey, trying to marry those two, and you can go so many different places, but then I kind of thought about my own Christmas heart, and where it really came out was back when I was a tyke.

A tyke is too small? Now, some would probably say so. But, you know, back when I would look forward to Christmas so that I could look forward to the day after Christmas when I'd go with my buddy Larry up to Wisconsin and go snowmobiling, and I'm like, this movie has snowmobiling in it because this is Grumpy Old Men and it's set between, you know, kind of starts a little before Thanksgiving and runs in through Christmas. You've got two men that are fighting with each other that really should be like Harold. They should be a sage, because Harold doesn't do his kickboxing anymore, but he's kind of finally settled in to, you know, be with God and let God kind of rule his life a lot more. These two guys are still children. I can't tell you how happy I am that I was not the reason that you chose Grumpy Old Men.

You know, they should be like you, but they're not, so they're fighting, and they don't know even what they're fighting about, because they just fought all their lives. They have nothing to look for in their lives, and then the beauty comes into their lives, and actually she ends up rescuing Jack Lemmon is what actually happens in the movie, but there's still this whole idea around beauty and rescue that needs to happen. And this is Ann-Margret, right? Ann-Margrock. Yeah. Yeah, from Flintstones, yeah. Actually, before she became Mrs. Claus' mother. Yeah. For those of us who, you know, Christmas movie fanatics.

Anyway, for those of you who had seen Christmas, the Santa Claus 2, you know, Mrs. Claus' mother was the same Ann-Margret that she migrated south a bit, just a while. Right. So in these guys, their adventure was going out ice fishing and just basically giving each other a bunch of shenanigans, like what we talk about and we kind of do here like you've been doing with Harold all night. It's the same thing, you know? So I saw so much of the masculine journey in what we do and what we have in our lives in this movie. I just kept finding more and more little things about it, and to me, it's still just an adventure that for them, it was trying to find something to really put their arms around and fight for, because they just wanted to fight.

But, you know, for us, you know, we've got God to wrap everything around, and he's the one that's going to do our fighting for us. So let's listen to the clip. You think you can take me? Come on.

All right, 1937 and Todd Field and the ball. Oh, for God's sake. When you stole my letterman. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Believe me, this man is a menace.

He's always drinking, starting fights. Isn't that right? Both grumpy old men. Why don't you do the world a favor and pull your lip over your head and swallow? Idiot.

Eat my shorts. So. So what? But after 50 years. What?

Of fighting over nothing. What? What? So.

What? They finally found something. Holy moly. Worth fighting for. See, women get obsessed with me. It's like one of them fatal attraction things. I'm too sexy for my shirt. Too sexy for my shirt. Too sexy. It hurts. Oh, it's just beautiful.

Thank you. Jack Lemmon. Your cat crapped on my steps again. Who says you can't turn a cat? Walter Matthau. Why would a woman come over at 1.30 in the morning to shoot you?

Just why do you think, bonehead? Oh my God. And Margaret. So when was the last time you made love?

October 4th, 1978. Too sexy. Grumpy old men. And the theme that runs throughout most of our clips and what runs through our lives continuously is humor. And that's something that all draws us closer together and closer to God. I mean, we love to point out the humor in the Bible.

That is just one of our favorite things to do. And if we can't be picking on each other, we're really not that happy right now, you know? Oh, and I, you know, I was marveling this morning, right, at Isaac's name was, he laughs. Right? And I don't think it's any coincidence that most of the great comics happen to be Jewish. There's no, you know, that it's telling you that, you know, that there's a lot of laughter involved.

And there's no doubt that God, you know, is getting a big kick out of all the shenanigans. Right? And the story that he tells and so much of what makes you have fun is, and in my opinion, Walter Matlow and Jack Lemmon truly loved each other on a really cool level, and that's their love language. Yeah. And they, you know, when one of them, I forget which one of the movies, gets sick and has heart, I mean, the other one's freaking out because, you know, that's his best friend in the world.

They hate each other, but that's part of the way they love each other. Right. You know, it's just, you know, that's how it works. And it's like that, and I love the whole concept of, you know, and I never really had thought about it prior to the masculine journey that, you know, however you want to say it, abusing one another is a love language. Right, Harold?

Absolutely. And boy, does Robby love you. I thought he was going to tell me to pull my lip over my head and swallow it. I loved him back.

I didn't throw anything at him. So I, you know, as you guys watch the movies, right, that you love this Christmas, you know, what an opportunity to hear God speak, right, and you hear him speak in the humor and you hear him speak, but, you know, if you listened to our show last week where, you know, art waxed eloquent, it was quite amazing. And it wasn't until I listened to it again two or three times, because it was used in the joyride to really push it home, I realized all the humor that art is quite the comedian. Right, don't you think? Well, you know, I did have a little more to say about Jess there.

You know, just Jess, aka Andy, I just wanted to – Jessica, yeah. Just wanted to let him know that, you know, you can buy squeaky balls online now if you want some, and just have them delivered right to your door, you know. And I know you live at a pretty high elevation, but y'all do have delivery up there. Not this time of year.

I don't need snowmobiles. Okay, well, I'll stop there on Andy. But thank you for being such a good fellow and letting me pick on you this way. You can't do that to everybody.

We better watch out for art these days. When he comes for you, he comes for you. It was really good. I mean, he really had – it was so subtle, and he says it with such a smile on his face that you really kind of miss it. But, you know, when I went back and listened to it, I said, ooh, this stuff's pretty good. You know, I was finding it hard to talk and laugh at the same time. I mean, Robby does it all the time, but I was having a little trouble there.

Had a little delays there. I was having to stop and laugh myself. Well, what I learned, you know, because it used to be, you know, when I started doing the Christian Car Guy show, often I was the only person in the studio, and nobody was laughing at my jokes. And I was like, man, this is like watching Lucy without the laugh track. We can't have that. We need to push button the crickets. Chirp, chirp, chirp. And so I was like, well, somebody's got to laugh here, and I have no other option but to tickle myself.

But I liked that art. Very good. Very observant of you. Thank you, and I do have an update tonight for my followers, both of them.

Jan was my follower from the beginning and encourager, and I met the young man at camp that said, wherefore art thou? So there are two I know about. Both of them, yeah. But the update is that Max and Bill Eclair have decided to start a family. They are going to have a little batch of canines who are already spoke for.

So they have a place to go to work after their training. Did Greg speak for them? Well, Greg's going to be the trainer, and he's got customers on the visit now. Oh, good. What about Jessica?

Jessica? Well, if he takes Max home with him now, then he can start his own line there. Max, I'll tell you that Bella is already sleeping a lot and eating a lot.

It's already taking effect there and being really loving. But that little Max, geez, he thinks he's the canine Don Juan now. So you take him and keep him for a little while there. Is he like underdog now?

Yeah, he's amazing. But I can't get over, I sit here and I see the side of my head, and I didn't realize it's on the camera. I didn't realize all of my hair had turned such a nice shade of silver the way it has. I really didn't know that until now.

And the other thing is the camera adds about 20 pounds, so you look pretty tight, man. Yeah, that's pointing to the fact that, again, that we are now streaming live on Tuesday nights, both on YouTube and Facebook, when I hit the right buttons, and when I hit the right buttons. Yeah, let's clarify. Earlier we – now I hit the right button. Anyway, so yeah, that's – and by all means, please, please subscribe, like, all that good stuff.

It really helps out the ministry. And give us some feedback, man. Say, you know, I wish you guys would do this or that or whatever it would be. You know, we would love to hear it. And again, you know, the neat thing for me is that you guys are sharing this time with us, this time of year.

It's really amazing. And so it is our prayer, certainly at Masculine Journey, that you would have some amazing time with Jesus, that you would actually hear that word of the Lord and have a laugh, right? Because I know he loves it. I mean, you know he does.

And think about that as you are spending time with your family, and, you know, use a little love language with that mother-in-law, it'll work. I used it for years while I, you know. Remember, we got boot camps coming up. Go to masculinejourneyradio.org. And once again, we wish you a Merry Christmas. This is the Truth Network.