Ready Player One with Paul McDonald and Matt Gleaves
Paul McDonald and Matt Gleaves enter the virtual reality of Ready Player One. Reality can be kind of a bummer—where do you go to escape? In this fast-paced, pressurized life we live, what would it be like to unplug and slow down? In spite of the discomfort, we tend to sit the fence and chase comfort and stability—what would it be like to go all-in? Strap on your goggles, get on your omnidirectional treadmill, and let’s discover God’s truth in this movie.
Quotes
We choose a reality that doesn’t feed our souls.
The behaviors that we think are the problems aren’t the problems. They are symptoms of a deeper problem.
Our hearts weren’t created for a fallen world, and we look for relief.
Something shocking has to occur for us to cross the threshold and become the hero.
You have to engage in life that is both spiritual and physical.
Adventure is where we see the creator.
Themes
We often find ourselves looking to escape our real lives into something less terrifying and painful.
The world is a terrifying and painful place, and we all look for a place to escape.
”We go for all the things we can do. We stay for all the things we can be.”
We want our escape and adventure to be risk free.
All the escapism is an attempt to fix an ache in our souls, an ache that only God can heal.
The more Wade presses into the truth, he spends more time in the real world.
The physical and spiritual world overlap and impact each other.
We still live like we are in debt.
We try to train ourselves to behavior avoidance, but training isn’t enough. It’s about developing a relationship with God so that you don’t even want the other things anymore.
The enemy may appear rationale until you resist him, and he shows himself as a maniacal overlord.
God is the ultimate reality. God gives man our choice of reality, but man’s (any choice other than God) reality is a virtual reality.
We are in bondage to those things that we use to escape our reality.
We do things to escape, but we have to realize we have a larger purpose.
Slowing down is important.
Resources
“I am still every age that I have been. Because I was once a child, I am always a child. Because I was once a searching adolescent, given to moods and ecstasies, these are still part of me, and always will be... This does not mean that I ought to be trapped or enclosed in any of these ages...the delayed adolescent, the childish adult, but that they are in me to be drawn on; to forget is a form of suicide... Far too many people misunderstand what *putting away childish things* means, and think that forgetting what it is like to think and feel and touch and smell and taste and see and hear like a three-year-old or a thirteen-year-old or a twenty-three-year-old means being grownup. When I'm with these people I, like the kids, feel that if this is what it means to be a grown-up, then I don't ever want to be one. Instead of which, if I can retain a child's awareness and joy, and *be* fifty-one, then I will really learn what it means to be grownup.” - Madeleine L’Engle
“Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt. “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt. “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment. “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full. “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.” -Matthew 18:23-35
Link to Proven Men Ministries
“But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.” -Romans 1:18-32
Questions
Where do you go to escape, to find our own piece of heaven in this life?
Where does life feel dry? Weary? Like it sucks? What makes you feel better?
Where do you look at life and “winning” for what it can do for you?
Where are you being asked/invited to go “all-in”?
How much of your Christian life is sin management/behavior management?
How can you develop a deeper walk and relationship with God so that you don’t even want to escape anymore?
Where are you tired of shame and guilt and sin and want to stand up and fight?
Where do you feel like life dealt you a shitty hand?
What are you in bondage to? What behavior or reaction do you hate that you can’t seem to escape?
What would it be like to slow down?
How do you respond when the enemy offers a way out?
What would it take to go all in?