The Empire Strikes Back with Paul McDonald and Sam Eldredge

Paul McDonald and Sam Eldredge enter a galaxy far, far away and discuss Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. While there are many scenes and themes we could talk about, we chose identity as the path to pursue. Luke had accomplished all he had dreamed about on Tattoine, but he was missing out on his true calling. In order to discover who we are, we will have to make difficult decisions. But those choices reveal our true identity, and who we will become. Climb on your tauntaun, we’re going where no man has gone before…nope, wrong movie. May the force be with you, and lets discover God’s truth in this movie.

Quotes

• Star Wars is a lens through which I see the world and reality.

• I love Star Wars because it is empirically good.  I love Star Wars like I love tacos, because without them life would be missing something.

• Luke has accomplished all he dreamed of on Tattooine, but he’s missing out on his true identity.

• You might be killing it in that specific arena, but that might not be the arena you are built for. Our success can sometimes take us away from our calling.

• If you want to know what path to avoid, you need to know what that path looks like.

• There comes a point, in our identity, where we have to go against our mentor.

• Even our mistakes, God redeems.

• Is my metric of making the right choice that everything goes perfectly? If so, I will be playing it very safe for the rest of my life.

• You can’t use your father’s lightsaber to get through all the fights you will have to face.

• Even in failure, your identity is more tightly woven.

 Themes

• The movie is mythic, epic, and legendary.

  • Using “In media res”-in the middle of the action-makes for a great story. Invites you to piece the world together.

  • We see things that we haven’t seen before.

  • Abrupt shift from the end of “A New Hope,” but a lot of time has passed

• The theme of Luke discovering his identity

  • Luke begins the story as an orphan who’s adrift, but ends as a son that’s very complicated.

  • Tying his identity into the legacy of the Force, Darth Vader, Obi Wan, and Yoda.

  • Seeing Obi-Wan: A grounding figure, someone who originally told him his family legacy.  Didn’t tell him the whole map, just told him what to do next.

  • Luke only made 2 decisions in this movie: to go to his friends, and jump off the catwalk from Darth Vader.  Every other time he was doing what someone told him to do. But our choices are what determine who we become.

  • He left where he felt comfortable to go to a place he felt out of place-“What are we even doing here?”

  • His experience in the cave shows him what is possible, what he is capable of becoming.

  • Luke feels the need to rush to rescue his friends, even if he’s not ready. But when are you ready?

  • We will have to go places our mentor can’t, in order to become us (and not a copy of our mentor).

  • Just because Luke didn’t do it perfectly doesn’t mean he did it wrong or made a mistake.

  • Sometimes success means facing Vader, not defeating him.

• It’s very easy to paint the pictures of our lives as good or bad, but the truth is that it’s not black and white.

• There’s a lot of Luke in each of us: adrift without a mentor, want to eagerly achieve who we’re meant to be, rushing off to try to save the world, something happens the leads us to question our sense of reality/”what I believed may not be true.” He got swept along in the current, not really making any decisions for himself but doing what others told him to do.

• In our pursuit of our identity, we take a leap only to find it doesn’t go smoothly.

Resources

• Yoda sings “Seagulls (Stop It Now)” by Bad Lip Reading

Questions

• Where do you feel like Luke: adrift without a mentor, training on Dagobah, fighting a battle that’s over your head, dealing with the unthinkable?

• How have you simplified your story into black and white?  Where should there be more gray?

• What do you tie your legacy to?

• What’s the pinnacle of your existence? 

• How many decisions do you make?  How often are you doing what others tell you to do?

• Where do you feel like you’re killing it? 

• How can success pull you away from your true identity?

• Where do you feel comfortable?

• What feels risky? Uncertain? Unready?

• What kind of man do you want to be?

• What battle do you engage in feeling unprepared?

• What past mistakes has God redeemed?  How has He created something beautiful from what you regret?

• What is your metric for making the right choice or gauging success?