The Girl Next Door with Paul McDonald
This week on the Men at the Movies podcast, we push the boundaries with The Girl Next Door starring Emile Hirsch, Elisha Cuthbert, and Timothy Oliphant. When we try to transition from a life we don’t want, the enemy shows up to remind us of our past. He is relentless, and will never stop squeezing you. But Jesus came to show us the juice, and how to handle the squeeze. The craziest thing you’ve ever done might be listening to this podcast, but just go with it, and find God’s truth in this movie.
Quotes
When you don’t know who you are, you end up being blown around by the winds of what’s happening.
We need our boundaries pushed so that we know where they are.
When we try to transition from who we were, the past comes back to bite us.
Who we were breaks us, and the purpose of the breaking is transformation.
The challenge for us is to see other people as who they could be, not as who they were at their worst moments.
Restoration of your heart doesn’t happen without doing some of the craziest things you’ve ever done.
The truth will grab our attention, and makes the current situation unlivable.
God says, “I know who you are, and you’re better than this.”
You’ve got to know if the juice is worth the squeeze.
Moral fiber isn’t about being a boy scout. It’s about getting our hearts back, and walking with God.
When you live a life of moral fiber, you have nothing to hide.
Themes
This episode will make many people uncomfortable. Why do it?
An honest look at our lives will reveal that our story would be rated R.
Jesus was accused of spending time with “sinners,” tax collectors and prostitutes, people that were uncomfortable. He would make the unclean clean, and I want to take concepts in this movie and redeem them.
Revolutionary War: English biggest superpower in the world, and if American soldiers fought according to the established rules of the day, they would have lost. It was uncomfortable, felt dishonorable, for the Americans to “break” convention and the rules. We need to learn to use the enemy’s tactics against him, a cultural guerilla warfare.
As a plot tool for Danielle, there is no bigger past to try to leave behind than being in the adult film industry, most devastating past to damage future relationships.
Matthew is a character with questions. He wonders who he is, and how he has spent his time. He’s trying to decide what really matters.
Matthew and Danielle both want to leave their past behind, but it will often come back up.
Tactics and approach of the enemy in the character of Kelly.
We need to know who we are, who God is, and who the enemy is.
The enemy opposes our transformation, and tries to pull us back to our old lives.
Is very friendly when we go along with what he wants.
As you fight for your heart, the enemy gets mad.
The enemy doesn’t care about what’s important to you. And if he does, it’s just so he can take it away.
The enemy is relentless. All he wants to do is steal, kill, and destroy you, devour you.
The squeeze will come. What will you do with it? We have to keep an eye on the juice.
Jesus came to tell us about the juice. You’ll get squeezed whether or not you’re chasing the juice, but it’s worth it.
Resources
Monk Manual: Doing and Being Course
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” - Isaiah 61:1 (ESV)“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” - C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
“A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.
“But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’
“Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him? And if he can’t, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away. So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.” - Luke 14:25-33 (NLT)
“We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame.” - Hebrews 12: 2 (NLT)
“We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.[b] This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies….For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” - 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, 17-18 (NLT)
Questions
What movie rating would you give your life? PG? PG-13? R? Mature audiences only? Worse?
What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
What mistakes in your past do you want to leave behind?
How does the past you try to leave behind keep cropping up?
Where do you say, “This is who I am”?
How has the enemy bowed up and asked, “What are you gonna do?”
What mud puddles are you playing in?
Where does God say, “I know who you are and you’re better than this”?
What is moral fiber?
What is the juice? Where is the squeeze?