Christmas Movie Messages

This is Hans Schile from the Finishing Well Podcast. On Finishing Well, we help you make godly choices about Medicare, long-term care, and your money. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

What do we keep from losing heart while trying to find the good way when life feels more like a losing battle than something worth dying for? Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call The Masculine Journey. The Masculine Journey starts here now.

Oh, yes, it does. The Masculine Journey does start here now. It's kind of fun, 12 o'clock on Saturday. Of course, it's not 12 o'clock on Saturday for us, but it will be.

We live in a time machine, and you'll be experiencing that. And actually, 12 o'clock this particular Saturday, it is Christmas Eve, Eve, I'm just saying, right, that everybody, like, how fun is that? And, you know, but for some people, Christmas ain't so fun. And, you know, things happen this time of year, and of course, I don't know why, you know, I guess Satan just sometimes attacks hard, so last year at this time, Andy had just lost his mother, and this year, unfortunately, Art lost his mother a few days ago, and as tragically Sam shockingly lost his older brother, who was that much older than him, just immediately over the weekend. And so Sam is here in the studio with us, but he's not going to be quite as vocal, in spite of the fact that it's his topic, because, you know, he's just kind of at that place where he's had a very emotional week of sharing with his brothers and sisters, and so interestingly, it's his topic, and a very fun topic, and a very masculine, for those of us who know us, it's a very masculine journey topic. So Sam, if you don't mind, share a little bit about our topic. Yeah, I was preparing for Christmas a few weeks ago, and had made a determination that I really wanted to try to watch some Christmas movies this year, because sometimes I'm like, well, I'll get to it later, I'll get to it later, and then Christmas is over, and like, well, I'll get to it next year, you know, kind of thing.

And so I started with Home Alone, but I haven't seen that one in a while, I need something to laugh at. And as I was watching it, I hit the scene in it that we'll play later, but I hit the scene in it, and I'm like, that speaks right to the masculine journey topic of woundedness, right? And then I started thinking about, you know, when we're talking about, you know, God's story, that all the good stories borrow from God's story, that yes, of course it's going to have topics that even in Christmas movies that are related to God's story, which is related, of course, to masculine journey is part of that, right? You know, the way we look at the masculine journey and the things that we take from the Bible, the stories that we take, you know, there's definitely clips that play along with the things we talk about.

Exactly. And so, you know, along those lines, you know, if you're in a band of brothers, and I hope you are, or, you know, however that works for you, band of sisters, you know, you do life together. And if you do life together with a group of people pretty long, you share tragedies. You know, Sam and I lost our moms the same year, and we did, you know, we've been through this stuff, and, you know, again, it's one of those things that is an honor, right, to share somebody's life to what's really going on. And everything ain't always so fine or so fun, but something to consider that, you know, who's going to be there for you, right, when those things happen, right? Right, Andy?

Yeah, definitely. Last year, you guys were a godsend. It was a really difficult time. I'd said on the radio before, I was going through a big thing with kidney stones, and mom was going through her, you know, her health issues, and then it suddenly happened where she passed, and for you guys to come along and really show what the masculine journey is about. And this growth, you build relationships. It's not just about, you know, discipleship. The discipleship is also the greatest part of discipleship to me is the relationship that you gain through as you learn together.

And for you guys to be there and be the pallbearers at our funeral and just be there for me, it was huge, and it is, again, what a band of brothers is about. Right, right. So, you know, in so many ways, God's teaching us, and sometimes he teaches us through wonderful Christmas movies that usually make us laugh a whole lot, and so one of those, if you're me, that's a traditional, like I will watch this movie every single Christmas. That will happen, unlike one movie we might see later in After Hours. But anyway, this movie, I can guarantee you, I've already watched this year.

I will watch it again next year. But Danny, why don't you set it up how this particular clip relates to actually one of your talks that you did at boot camp. Yeah, the movie's Elf, and it's a staple in our family, too. When I married into the Scrimpshire family, it become part of the Christmas routine along with several other movies, and this scene is where Buddy meets his dad for the first time.

He's traveled through the candy cane forest and the whole thing into New York, and he wanders into his dad's office, but this guy doesn't know he's his dad, and they meet, and then it plays into the larger story for me, because both of these guys were kind of living in their smaller stories, but all of a sudden the larger story begins to collide as they meet, and you realize the impact that your life has, and that's just kind of what it spoke to me, but we can play the clip. Excuse me. I'm here to see a Walter Hobbs. I'm Buddy the Elf. You look hilarious. Who sent you? Papa Elf. Papa Elf? From the North Pole.

From the North Pole? Yes. So you really think we should ship them? No.

I think we should take a $30,000 bath so some kid can understand what happened to a puppy and a friggin' pigeon and ship them. Yeah. Mr. Hobbs? It's me on Intercom. Go ahead.

Yeah, I think someone sent you a Christmas gram. Dad! All right, let's get it over with. I walked all day and night to find you. You look like you came from the North Pole.

Exactly where I came from. Santa must have called you. Oh, yeah, sure. He just got off the cell phone with me.

He did? So, go on. Go on with what? Are you going to sing a song or something, or can I just go back to work? A song?

Uh, yeah. Anything for you, Dad. I'm here with my dad, and we never met, and he wants me to sing him a song. And I was adopted, but you didn't know I was born. So I'm here now. I found you, Daddy.

And guess what? I love you. I love you. I love you. Well, that was weird.

Usually you guys just, you know, put my name in the jingle bells or something. It's me, your son. Susan Wells had me, and she didn't tell you, but now I'm here. It's me, Buddy. Susan Wells.

You said Susan Wells? Yes. Who sent this Christmas gram? What's a Christmas gram?

I want one. You know, all of our lives matter, and that we impact people, and our decisions, negatively or positively, impact those around us. Thus, those around us impact us, and that's part of the larger story. And just watching, you know, I love this movie. I mean, the comedy in it is hilarious, but there is that underlying thing that we talk about around a masculine journey. About, you know, there are things that go on in the world that we don't see, because we're either blinded to it, or we just refuse to see. But it is part of the larger story that, you know, there are events and things going on, and, you know, people need our glory to shine, as we've been talking about.

So that's kind of the premise on what I saw here. That's so amazing. Harold, you had something? You were raising your hand? Five minutes.

Was he waving at the new camera? No, he was saying there was five minutes left for the break. Oh, oh, oh. That's pretty good.

That was his steal second sign there. Oh, okay. All right. But Andy, so... I'm just trying to copy Jim. Oh, yeah. I won't forget that one. Anyway, Andy, you, for you, this is Sonship, right?

Right here. Yeah, it is. In this particular clip. I mean, Buddy was an orphan that got mixed up, and then he came back in his dad's life. And I wasn't a big elf fan, but the more I watch it, there is so many things that relate to the masculine journey. And being that son, you know, you do feel orphaned from God, even though you know he's your father, because of what happens in our own earthly father's life and their involvement. And sometimes those things get messed up, and then you begin to twist things, and you really don't look at God as father.

He's this heavenly father, but really what does he do, you know, as me on earth? And he became, and through this old masculine journey, God became, as a father, he became much more accessible to me as a father through this message. Yeah, and once you became that, you could call out people's glory, like Buddy the Elf. So Buddy goes on, you know, you could hear it in that. He just has such a, I mean, he was raised as an elf, right? And he still has that childlike faith.

And he looks for opportunities to call out people's glory, and this is an example here. You did it! Congratulations!

World's best cup of coffee. Great job, everybody. It's great to meet you.

Hi. So it was a little bit naive there. There was kind of some false advertising going on, but he looked for the opportunity to call that glory, and that's obviously the show that we just came off of. But he really did look for that opportunity. He looked for the best in everybody.

He had a North Pole experience and brought it, you know, stateside or whatever, but he just, you know, you can't help but laugh at that childlike faith that he carries throughout the movie. Oh, yeah. And he, you know, from my perspective, calls out his father from, you know, a faithlessness. Yes. Right?

Yeah, agreed. He didn't have faith in much of anybody, but also his priorities were not for his family. And so his own younger son, actually turns things around, you know, after, you know, Buddy runs away. And so you look at so many things there that people are, you know, given that freedom cry, right? And it's interesting that so often, as Sam was pointing out many times, it's our children, right, that are speaking truth into our life that nobody else will. I think it's, we talked a little bit about it earlier, but I think every Christmas movie, for the most part, does have the disruption, dismantling, in order to move to healing and restoring, right? Whether it's Home Alone and Kevin has a bad perspective about his family, that needs to be disrupted, dismantled, so he can move into a place of healthiness, you know? The same thing with the characters in Elf, the dad, even the stepmom, the little brother, you know, they all have to have that event, right? And so it's pretty consistent in all of the shows.

Right. So we have more very exciting, funny Christmas clips, and one in the after hours, not so funny and exciting. But Errol liked it, so we're setting you up to listen to the after hours later, and we're going to get to all that other stuff in the next segment. But we want to remind you that we do have a boot camping coming up at the end of March, April.

We haven't figured all that out, but of course you can always go to mass control. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God. It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there. What kind of inspired you to come up this weekend? Oh my goodness, just my faith in general. You know, my father has passed down that heritage of just that Christian life, that Christian faith, and just godly morals and principles, and he's instilled that in my life.

And I have children as well, and I want to instill that in their life. So when I get an opportunity to do something like this, I jump on it. I just want to be here, and I'm glad to be here.

It's a great opportunity. We're definitely glad to have you here as well. Any talk that stuck out to you this weekend that's really just kind of made your heart come alive, put that fire back in you?

Probably one thing that just stands out to me is John 15. It's just not being alone. Know that I have Christ on my side. I can't do anything without him.

And I need him in my life. I'm a very private person. I like to do things on my own. I don't like to ask for help. So that's hard for me to know I've got to ask Jesus for something, and then also just to rely on a band of brothers that I can look to and turn to and say, hey guys, I need help.

I can't do this alone. register today at MasculineJourney.org So, yes, there is Sam's bump. And you may wonder how that has to do with Christmas movies, but Sam will tell you. It does.

It does. God is constantly speaking to us, and there's so much comfort in that. He's speaking to us through the birds chirping, the animals playing, all those kinds of things, but he's doing it through movies, and those include Christmas movies.

So I challenge you, when you're watching some Christmas movies, say, God, what do you have in store for me? Why does this movie make my heart come alive, or why does it hit that chord in me that I can't put my words to? Why do I love it so much?

Why am I so passionate about this movie? And let God kind of unpack that for you, because he's trying to tell you something. He's trying to remind you of some things.

He really is. And I would say also that a lot of people think that Jesus is the Word, and the Word is Jesus, which is actually certainly the Bible, but it is also this voice that he has, hear, O Israel, right? And so when he speaks, that's a word, okay?

And those words are critical to really having that relationship with him, because if you're not getting words, how can you have a relationship with him? Well, that's what I was going to say. The whole point of Christmas is God spoke Jesus into him. I mean, that's the reason for Christmas, so yeah. And that was Word of God Speak by MercyMe. And so it's apparently our default. When we don't have another bump, we just play that, because it kind of applies to everything, apparently.

All right. It's like the question in Sunday school, it was always Jesus, right? It was Jesus, yes, of course. You know, if we didn't use my clip, it just wouldn't make sense. So to quote a good friend of mine that likes to say that when we use his clip. But anyway, I went with this very theme that Sam was talking about in the movie Santa Claus, The Santa Claus. And to set this up, I hope most of you have seen this movie. It's another one of those that God spoke to me many times through this movie, which I just love the humor of it. But essentially, this is an opportunity for Scott to be called out by his son, right? And so this is like adventure Scott.

And so if you have been to a boot camp, you're familiar with the masculine journey, we talk a lot about God calls us into adventures and to risk and to go stretch your comfort zone. Well, Scott's comfort zone got stretched when Santa ended up on his roof, right? And the next thing you know, he goes out there to check on it, and Santa falls off the roof and dies.

This is the part that we're leading up to this clip. And so he's out there trying to deal with that when his son is so excited because he sees the ladder, which is, you know, the clatter company has made the thing. And then, you know, it's spectacular. But listen how his son calls Scott, you know, into this adventure big time, you know, to be the Santa Claus. Look here, Dad, the row's such a clatter company. Huh? Out by the roof there's a row such a clatter, just like a poem.

Just like a poem? Charlie, come on down from there. Charlie, get down from there. Dad, you've got to see this. Don't touch anything. It's great. I'm just going to call the police.

I'll carry this stuff out there and let them deal with it, okay? Whoa. Whoa.

This guy was huge. Dad, isn't this neat? Charlie, Charlie, stay away from those things. They're reindeer. You don't know where they've been.

They all look like they've got key lime disease. Easy, Rudolph. Excuse me.

Comet. Dad, check out Santa's sleigh. There's no such thing as Santa's sleigh.

Sure there is. You said you believed in Santa, right? I did.

I do. What about the reindeer? These are Santa's reindeer, aren't they?

I hope not. These are a gift. Merry Christmas. Now, hop out of there, please. Where do you want to go? Listen, Charlie, I'm not kidding. Let's go.

Let's go. So, you know, I think pointed out so clearly, if you think about the movie, and you've seen it, and I hope you have, that what happens for poor Scott is, you know, he becomes the Santa, right? And as he begins to grow a beard, and he starts to gain weight, his doctor tells him that his, you know, he needs to do something about his beard turning white, and he said, and you should dye it. I love that line. It makes me laugh every time. Anyway, his life is totally dismantled, as is, you know, his son's, as is, you know, Neil, the psychiatrist, and his wife, and everybody's life is turned upside down to a new childlike faith. And, you know, the epic line, which really impacted me the first time I saw it, and you talk about the Word of God speak, it spoke to me, and it still does, that the little girl elf, you know, is talking to Scott that night when he's trying to figure all this out, and he's talking about what, you know, believing is seeing, and she says, no, you know, it's not seeing is believing. You know, believing is seeing. And, in so many different ways, you know, when you believe that you can hear from God, you know, getting that understanding from me was one of the major turning points of my life.

And then to have people reinforce that within the masculine journey, you know, made a huge impact in so many different areas of my life and the best guidance I ever got. So you look like you wanted to say something, Danny. Go ahead. I think I have to correct you. If we step into a childlike faith, I think we've got our lives turned right side up. Oh, I like that. I stand corrected. You're doing good sitting in Jim's chair.

I'm still contemplating big words. Anyway, so very cool. And, you know, just so that we can, you know, get another classic in here, Andy, you have yours you can set up, which is amazing. Yeah, so this is from It's a Wonderful Life, and this is another one that I, for years, I hadn't seen, wasn't aware of it. My mom brought it to my attention probably about 20 years ago, I guess. But, I mean, it really impacted my life. I can remember teaching Sunday school to youth, and it really made an impact on their lives.

I mean, it's one where it really hits home with a point of significance, identity, this feeling of why I'm here on earth and what is my purpose, or do people really see me, or I'm really helping them out. So you've got George Bailey, who's – he wants to go and build something great, be an architect. And so his dad wants to get involved in the building loan. He does this. He helps out a lot of people. But then his cousin makes a bad deal and loses some money, and then they're on the hook for it. So he's feeling sorry for himself, like, bad deal.

So he's got this guardian angel that comes in and tries to save him and help him. This is the dialogue, and we'll talk about it when we come back. Thank you, George. Thank you, George.

You're welcome. I'm sure you're well-known. I knew if I were drowning, you'd try to save me. You see, you did. And that's how I saved you. Very funny. Oh, and all about you. I've watched you grow up from a little boy. Are you a mind reader or something?

Who are you, then? Clarence Oddbody, AS-2. Oddbody, AS-2?

What's that, AS-2? Angel, second class. Why'd you want to save me?

That's what I was sent down for. I'm your guardian angel. Ridiculous of you to think of killing yourself with money.

Eight thousand dollars. Yeah, now, just things like that. How do you know that? I told you, I'm your guardian angel. I know everything about you. And you'll help me, won't you?

George. How? By letting me help you.

Only one way you can help me. You don't happen to have 8,000 bucks on you, do you? Oh, no, no.

We don't use money in heaven. Oh, yeah, that's right. I keep forgetting.

Comes in pretty handy down here, bub. Oh, touch, touch, touch. I'm worth more dead than a lie. Now, look, you mustn't talk like that.

I won't get my wings with that attitude. You just don't know all that you've done. If it hadn't been for you... Yeah, if it hadn't been for me, everybody would be a lot better off.

My wife and my kids and my friends. Look, little fellow, go off and haunt somebody else, will you? No, now you don't understand.

I've got my job. Oh, shut up, will you? Yeah, so you still think killing yourself would make everyone feel happier, eh?

Oh, I don't know. I guess you're right. I suppose it would have been better if I'd never been born at all. What'd you say?

I said I wish I'd never been born. And we all feel like that sometimes, right? I've been reading in Job.

Job felt like that, right? And he gets that feeling, and Clarence jumps in the water to get him to come save him. Well, he had saved, George had saved his brother, Harry, earlier in the movie. Harry goes on to be this war hero. He helped – George helps all these people get houses from this building and loan that he architected and helped their lives.

He was a builder of lives instead of like builder of buildings. But he had gotten all messed up in feeling like he was such a failure, and that's what we do a lot of times. We feel that. We make agreements.

We allow Satan to talk to us. We make agreements. So in breaking those agreements, the masculine journey term, we get free from that, and then we step into our identity and realize that we have a wonderful life. Right, which is exactly what happens with George, right? When he finally says, let me have my life back. He's breaking the agreement, right? Exactly.

And then old anxiety, right? And a little twinkling, and next thing you know, Clarence gets his wing. If you've never seen the movie, please go watch it over the holiday season. You'll see it on plenty of places. But yeah, it made a big impact on my life.

It's absolutely huge. Well, we want to let you all know that we're doing a little something new. As of last week, the first time we went live on YouTube and Facebook, this week we're live on YouTube only as we didn't click all the buttons we should. So every Tuesday night is when we actually record the masculine journey. So Tuesday nights, you can now watch it live on YouTube or Facebook, either one.

It's called masculine journey. And also, by all means, subscribe to us on YouTube or like us on Facebook, however all that works. It really helps out our ministry. If you would do that, we would really appreciate the viewership and the listenership as we do.

You tune in to us every week or look at us in the podcast, right? I want to remind you, we've got boot camps coming up. It's all at masculinejourney.org. And again, we are so excited about your Christmas. And so we want to wish you one from the masculine journey. Let's go! Merry Christmas! This is the Truth Network.