Braveheart with Paul McDonald and Daniel Schwabauer
Paul McDonald and Daniel Schwabauer discuss Braveheart (1995) starring Mel Gibson, and the questions that arise. What does it mean to be a man? How do we live uncompromising lives and avoid losing heart? How can we die happy men?
Join us as we discuss God’s truth in this movie!
About Daniel
Daniel Schwabauer is an award-winning author and teacher. His professional work includes stage plays, radio scripts, short stories, newspaper columns, comic books and scripting for the PBS animated series Auto-B-Good. His young adult novels have received numerous awards, including the 2005 Ben Franklin Award and the 2008 Eric Hoffer Award. Operation Grendel, his adult military sci-fi novel, recently released in hardcover from Enclave. He graduated with honors from Kansas University’s Masters program in Creative Writing in 1995.
Quotes
“It’s our wits that make us men.”
Fighting is not what makes you a man.
Power is opposed by principle.
Anatoli Kusnyetsov: “If in this world you are confronted with absolute power, power unmitigated, unrestrained, extending to every area of human life - if you are confronted with power in those terms, you are driven to realize that the only possible response to it is not some alternative power arrangement, more humane, more enlightened. The only possible response to absolute power is the absolute love which our Lord brought into the world.”
We wake up and wonder, “What happened to my soul?”
We have dreams that we put under our pillows, but won’t take the risk to pursue it.
We equate our dreams with our validation. The dream gets placed under the burden of holding up our identity.
Our fight is not against the enemy, but for our freedom.
“It is for freedom that we have been set free.” - Galatians 5:1
I wish I had something in my life I thought was worth mortgaging my house for.
“You think the people of this country exist to give you position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom.”
Compromise keeps us from our God-given right to something better.
We want you to dedicate your life to this company…and all the red flags went off.
When we choose something other than who we are, we fracture, and become less whole hearted.
The cry of the modern man’s heart: “I want to believe as he does. I don’t want to lose heart.”
Our hearts want something to fight for, but compromise is all around us.
I want to be the person I was made to be, all the time.
We’re not on the love boat, we’re on a battleship.
We have to take our context seriously.
When we get talked out of the reality of the world we live in, we compromise.
Satan constantly wants us to question the truth of God: “Did God really say…?”
“Every man dies. Not every man truly lives.”
We long for a sense of approval from our father figure.
Last words of David: “God spoke to me, and He spoke through me.”
Success equals faithfulness.
Themes
William Wallace as a picture of Jesus
Sonship/fatherhood
The meaning of manhood: Wits, courage, freedom of heart, education, being whole hearted.
We can’t fight power with power, but with principle.
We have a desire to rise up against oppression and justice.
Manhood gets diminished when survival and compromise are our two biggest priorities.
The compromised life fractures our hearts, robs us of something that is so much better.
Our hearts will be in service to something.
William Wallace is motivated, not by his role, but by his love for his people, and for them to be free of the tyranny of Longshanks and the nobles.
We are looking for something worth fighting for, something we believe in.
Restoration begins when we get to the place where we want to get our hearts back.
We don’t like coming to the realization and admitting that we have compromised and aligned with the enemy.
We have to choose between compromise and doing something that never been done before. Are we going to do what’s always been done to survive, or risk doing something that feels like death?
Compromise (whether it’s for lands, titles, gold, or fill in the blank) just leads us to slavery.
We have a real enemy who works to destroy us. We have to be aware of the world we live in.
Knowing how the world works can make us appear cynical or paranoid.
The enemy lulls us into a false sense of security when we seek relief when we really need restoration of our hearts.
Robert the Bruce’s father is an example of the devil.
We must get to the point where we hate compromise and die to it in our lives.
When we believe something we know is a lie, it’s a sin, and we give up ground. But we can break the stronghold and find freedom through repentance.
There’s something worse than physical death—betrayal and death of our heart.
The reward for living a whole hearted life comes from Hamish’s father: I’ve lived free, I saw my son grow into who he can be—I’m a happy man.
Resources
Living the Braveheart Life: Finding the Courage to Follow Your Heart by Randall Wallace
The End of Christendom by Malcolm Muggeridge
Questions
What does it mean to be a man?
Who changes in this story? Who is transformed?
How have you compromised your heart?
What do you sacrifice to survive?
How’s your heart?
What is your heart in service to? What is our motivator?
What do you fight for? What is the great cause in your life?
What is our power given to us for?
Where do you dedicate your life?
What do you sacrifice for security?
How have you lost heart?
How would you describe your true identity?
Are you living life, or are you surviving?