8-Bit Christmas with Paul McDonald and Sarah Daniels

Written By Paul McDonald

Coming up on the Men at the Movies podcast, we ring in the new year with 8-Bit Christmas. We can focus so much on the areas we feel behind, the areas of lack, that we miss the places where we are winning. As we enter the new year, instead of looking at what we want to accomplish, let’s focus on who we want to become. When we do that, the what will follow the who. Join us as we discover God’s truth in this movie.

Quotes

  • I can focus so much on the places where I’m behind that I completely miss the areas where I’m winning.

  • We get frustrated when all we want is a Nintendo, but God has us picking up poop and varnishing hockey sticks.

  • Miracles don’t happen unless you’re at the end of your rope.

  • Instead of saying “Here’s what I want to accomplish this year,” determine who you want to become next year. Because the what will follow the who.

  • Who I want to be will shape what I do.

  • We experience a thwarting of our pursuit of life so that we only find life with the Father.

  • “I focused so much on what I wanted that I missed what I already had.”

  • We feel behind even when we’re right where we are supposed to.

 Themes

  • How God sometimes refuses to give us what we most want to offer a greater gift instead

    • We try really hard to get what we desperately want, but nothing works. You feel like a loser, incomplete, and like life lacks meaning without what you are pursuing.

    • Teaching us maturity in doing things we don’t want to do, and trusting that God has a plan when we are doing them.

    • There’s stuff we have to go through that we don’t want to go through.

    • When we lose ourselves in pursuit of our overwhelming desire (“I need this to live”) leads to us ignoring the people we should care for, and will disappoint us in the reality. Once we receive/achieve it, we still feel empty and incomplete.

    • Frequently we either minimize our disappointment and pivot (“God is good all the time”) or take it to failure (“I’ll never succeed here”). What we need to do is say, “Yes, this hurts, I’m disappointed.” And take those emotions to God.

    • We experience a thwarting of our pursuit of life so that we only find life with the Father.

  • We can focus so much in the areas we feel like we’re losing that we miss the places where we are winning.

  • Take some time to take a breather, an act of defiance against a world that tells you to rush, rush, rush.

  • Your priorities and pursuits can shape you who become, or who you are can shape where you win.

Resources

Questions

  • What was the greatest gift you received as a kid?

  • What was a gift you really wanted that you never got?

  • Looking back over the year, where are you winning? What are you proud of? What have you accomplished?

  • In the past year, what’s not working? Where do you feel behind, missing out? What is lacking? What of these things do you have any control over?

  • Where has your joy been choked out by the pressures to perform?

  • What are some ways you can choose an act of defiance against the busyness you feel?

  • Where do you feel the most pressure to perform, to be perfect?

  • How do you invite God into your plans? Your work? Your marriage?

  • Where is God thwarting you so that you can find more life in Him?

  • What really matters? What are your priorities?

  • What’s your thing with God?

More info

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Edited and mixed by Grayson Foster

Logo and episode templates by Ian Johnston

Audio quotes performed by Britt Mooney, Paul McDonald, and Tim Willard, taken from Epic (written by John Eldredge) and Song of Albion (written by Stephen Lawhead).

Southerly Change performed by Zane Dickinson, used under license from Shutterstock.

Links:

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