Secondhand Lions

We’re doing a Bible study series in LiFE groups that is based on movies. Last week we looked at the movie Secondhand Lions, and something that we discussed really struck a chord with me because it is something I struggle with every day. We all struggle with it every day.

The lies we believe. The Villain of our stories takes one little iota of truth, and mixes it up with a bunch of lies to skew the truth into something we can’t recognize or believe. He senses our weaknesses and preys upon them, watering that little seed of doubt until it has sprouted into a full-grown weed.

So many times, I’ve seen something work out for God’s glory and my good, and I am surprised that it all turned out how it did. At times, I’ve almost felt God saying “Did you doubt me? What have I ever done that would lead you to believe that this wouldn’t happen? Why do you think I have forsaken you?” I’m ashamed when I get this feeling, and yet, I believe the lies just as quickly the next time.

Donald Miller’s first book Blue Like Jazz rocked my world.

There is one chapter I still have to go back and read again and again and again. It’s about loving your neighbor as yourself. Don says “I would never talk to my neighbor the way I talk to myself, and… somehow I had come to believe it was wrong to kick other people around but it was okay to do it to myself.”

When I feed into the negative, pessimistic self-loathing that sometimes comes up as the lies begin to grow, I have to remember that I am created in God’s image, and am therefore tearing God Himself down. I don’t always remember that, because I find it much easier to indulge in my own pity-party of negative thoughts than to choose to seek out the parts of me that are made in the image of God Himself.

This is all coming to the surface because of the guy last week. You know, the one I’d like to marry if he should so be inclined. Immediately the Villain starts whispering to me how I’m not good enough. How I’m not pretty enough. How I’m overweight. How I’m silly and stupid and nobody really wants a girl like that.
But I can’t indulge more than I already have. I can’t let myself get to a point where I start to believe that. I can’t get to the bitter, jaded place where the weeds show more than Jesus does. Because then the Villain wins and I lose. And I know God wants me to let Him love me more than anything else.


Donald Miller has a new book out now, and I’m off to read it.


And try to shut out the Villain’s voice.