The Neverending Story with Paul McDonald, Britt Mooney, and Sarah Daniels

Written By Paul McDonald

Coming up on the Men at the Movies podcast, I talk with Britt Mooney and Sarah Daniels about the Neverending Story. We all get tempted to either lose ourselves in escapism or busyness. But great stories have the capacity to reveal our worth and our identity. We were never meant to live an ordinary life. Every real story…is a never-ending story. Join us as we discover God’s truth in this movie.

Quotes

  • We try to escape life/calling either with distraction or work.

  • Books speak into our identity, help you understand who we are.

  • Stories will bring us into our own story.

  • There’s someone out there who needs to hear the story that you’re living.

  • If you don’t move you will die.

  • We will get to a point in our story (our life) where we wonder if it was all in vain.

  • Unless you know how God sees you, you will not have the strength to see your true self.

  • God did not create story to help us escape, but to invite us into His Story.

  • We were never meant to live an ordinary life.

  • God will ask you to do something you didn’t think you could possibly do.

  • Stories have the capacity to reveal our worth and our identity.

 Themes

  • The power of story

    • Not in distraction, but to transform

    • Story speaks into our identity, helps us understand who we are.

    • Helps us to relate to people who experience the same things we are going through (we aren’t alone).

  • What are we called to do that only we can do?

  • What keeps us from pursuing our call?

    • Loss

    • Practicality (can also be judgement, criticism)

  • We have to know our own worth, and see our true self.

  • The enemy’s playbook—make you afraid, take away your hope, and control you.

Resources

  • forgedinfilm.org

  • The Neverending Story book

  • Realm Makers

  • “A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” -Richard Bach

  • War of Art by Steven Pressfield

  • “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,” -Colossians 1:13 (NASB)

  • “If you have never wept bitter tears because a wonderful story has come to an end and you must take your leave of the characters with whom you have shared so many adventures, whom you have loved and admired, for whom you have hoped and feared, and without whose company life seems empty and meaningless. If such things have not been part of your own experience, you probably won’t understand what Bastian did next.” quote from The Neverending Story

Questions

  • What are some things/roles that only you can do?

  • What are your favorite stories (books, movies, TV shows)?

  • How do you relate to some of your favorite characters?

  • What would it be like to know your own worth?

  • Does anyone know your story?

  • Whose story do you know?

  • What do you feel called to do that you are afraid of?

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:

Paul McDonald
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The Bourne Identity with Paul McDonald, Troy and Stacy Hooker