Finding Contentment Amid the Chaos

Written By Paul McDonald

Coming up on the Men at the Movies podcast, we explore the 2005 film War of the Worlds. This movie reveals how comfort can lead to a confidence and complacency that won’t stand up when catastrophe and chaos enters our lives. When that happens, cuz it will, how can we get through, survive, and even more importantly, find our contentment? We discuss all that and more, so join us as we discover God’s truth in this movie.

Troy Hooker’s Kickstarter

If you’d like to support Troy’s new book, Demon Tide, and get a bunch of cool perks and merch, check out his Kickstarter here. Once they reach their initial goal, they have a ton of awesome stretch goal rewards. So check out his upcoming book, help it become reality, and get some swag in the process. It’s a win-win-win.

The Quotes

  • Our comfort can be a killer to our spiritual life.

  • Need to be shocked out of our complacency.

  • Comfort makes us complacent and confident.

  • It was never what the characters did that saved them.

  • Harlan’s focus was on saving himself. But if that’s our focus when catastrophes happen, we are going to fail.

  • Throughout the Bible, God is constantly hiding people.

  • If you focus on the enemy, you’re just going to die.

  • We have to be exposed to things so that they don’t kill us.

 Themes

  • Destructive nature of our enemy

    • Vast, cool, unsympathetic

    • Waiting for the right moment to strike

    • Humans incapable of rescuing themselves

    • Our job is to keep our eyes open, focused on Jesus, and let God do God’s work.

    • There is a time to fight, and a time to hide.

  • The danger of being complacent, confident, and comfortable

    • What happens when we live in a bubble, silo, echo chamber

    • Become easy prey for the enemy when this happens

  • Importance of being shocked out of our routine of complacency and comfort

    • Open your experience of the world, other people

    • Resist putting your confidence in what makes you comfortable

    • Become monsters by fighting for what feels most normal

    • Realizing I can work with what I’ve got even when I don’t have what I want.

Resources

  • Descendant Publishing- descendantpublishing.com

  • Opening Narrations on YouTube

  • Troy’s Kickstarter

Questions

  • What is your response when your comfort is confronted?

  • Where do you find your comfort?

  • In what ways do you feel complacent and confident?

  • What happens when those areas are disrupted?

  • How did you react to the COVID shutdowns and subsequent reopening? Did you fight to get back to “normal?” What was the readjustment like for you? Where have you felt similar disruptions in your life?

  • Where have you hoarded in a crisis?

  • When is the time to hide, and when is the time to defend yourself?

  • How do you respond to the feeling of being hidden, or needing to hide?

  • What can you do with what’s been given to you?

More info

Check out our YouTube channel (@menatthemovies) for bonus content.

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If you would like to support our work (and get some behind-the-scenes perks), visit our Patreon page. Get invites to livestreams, bonus episodes, even free merch. If you’d like to do a one-time contribution (a cameo appearance), visit www.menatthemovies.com/investors.

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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