The Secret Life of Walter Mitty with Paul McDonald, Allen Arnold, and Patrick Creehan
We take a peek into The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) starring Ben Stiller, Kristin Wiig, and Sean Penn. Paul McDonald, Allen Arnold, and Patrick Creehan discuss how God invites us to engage in life and adventure, how we have to pursue the recovery of our hearts, and how failure can lead to a clarification of our purpose and identity.
Join us as we discover God’s truth in this movie!
About Allen
Allen Arnold is an author, speaker, and Executive Producer of Content for Wild at Heart—the ministry founded by New York Times bestselling author John Eldredge. His passion is awakening people’s hearts to actively pursue their dreams and creativity with God. As a former Fiction Publisher, he oversaw the launch of more than 500 novels—and has since mentored and presented to thousands of creatives. Now, through the power of story, he helps people live a better story. He is the author of two acclaimed books (The Story of With and Chaos Can't). He loves blue oceans, black coffee, hot salsa, and big ideas.
Discover more at withallen.com
Find The Story of With: A Better Way to Live, Love, and Create and Chaos Can’t: Overcome What Comes Against You in this Shaken World on Amazon
Quotes
Here’s a man working at Life Magazine who has no life.
We’ve all been given an invitation from the Father in engage in life and adventure.
The Walter I see at the beginning looks a lot like the men that I see at church.
It’s only through the end of what we think is life that we can actually find true life.
Walter was on a journey from dreaming to presence.
As our lived life becomes more crazy wild, our dream life becomes less crazy wild.
When God invites us into adventure and we start experiencing greater life, everything doesn’t happen in the first outing.
We aren’t condemned to live in our minds, to be stuck. We have the power to get out. Resist the enemy, and he will flee. No resist, no flee.
We don’t have to solve all the clues at once. Just the next one.
We are invited to look inside to discover what gifts God has given us. We have to solve the mystery of ourselves to see as God sees. When we’re too busy trying to make life happen, we miss the playfulness and beauty and romancing of our heart.
The clues that we get to find our identity are often clues that we can sense (sound, smell, see, taste, feel).
The whole purpose of the Bible is to woo us to God.
At the end, Walter doesn’t work for life anymore. He has life.
Themes
The movie is about life and dreams and an awakening.
The clementine cake represents permission. When offered permission, we have to unwrap the cake.
God invites us, and pursues us, into our passion, dreams, and adventure; but the pages remain blank.
As we start living the life God invites us into, our dreams become less crazy and our lives become more wild.
When we move towards life, we will be stretched in ways we don’t think we can survive.
The road from dreaming to presence is not smooth or easy.
The beauty/love invites him to break through his fear and push into his adventure. It’s an invitation from beauty that gives him the courage to press on.
Walter’s first trip looks like a failure, but it set the stage for his overall success. What looked like failures allowed him to clarify his identity. He was pursuing the photo for work, the image of Cheryl kept him going, and now he has to decide who he is and what he will do as a result.
We are plagued with attacking thoughts, but we have the power to get out of the cab.
Don’t fear your purpose, unless it’s a shark and trying to kill you. Then fend it off with bravery and courage.
Sean Penn’s character—He loves Walter Mitty. He sees people. Just like God loves us and sees us.
God’s playfulness makes no sense when we are in an orphan state.
Everything Walter thought he lost was kept and recovered.
God engages our senses as he pursues the recovery of our hearts.
The recovery of our hearts involves not only an invitation to adventure, but also an invitation to remember our wounds and loss.
We become the man God designed us to be in order to look after the people under our care. The people around us are what make life special. Our life can’t just be about us, it’s about the people.
Life’s motto: To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life.
Questions
Where do you have blank spots in your profile?
Where have you given up in your search for life? What dreams have been packed up in boxes?
Where are you being invited to reengage with life, with adventure? Will you give yourself permission to live?
Where are you feeling like Stretch Armstrong?
Where has failure led to a clarification of purpose and identity?