20+ Years of Braveheart Part 3 of 4
As I have mentioned before. The epic film, Braveheart, is a story with all the ingredients that make a story great. The largest and most important ingredient in this story, the one that moves our hearts every time… LOVE.
Love is why the greeting card industry still exists…
it’s why we cheer when the fair maiden is rescued from the bad guys.
it’s why we always cry at the end of Titanic, The Notebook and Romeo and Juliet.
it’s why we all went and bought a boom box to someday raise above our heads.
it’s why we stop and go quiet at the holy moment when a man takes a knee to propose.
it’s why every heart longs for “…And They Lived Happily Ever After.”
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The 1995 film was nominated for 10 and won 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture. On it’s 20th birthday, I want to honor the obvious or maybe not so obvious, Braveheart is Love-story.
5 Things women wish their men would see when watching the Love Story, Braveheart
1. How not to make a proposal.
2. How to invite a woman to getaway and talk.
3. How to save a thistle.
4. How to fight for her.
5. How to die for her.
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In the new book, The HeArt of a Warrior, Chapter 13 is dedicated to Loving a Woman. I had a lot of help, coaching and counsel from my wife, Robin, three daughters and our women’s conference team who lead the Women’s Deepening Weekend, coming this Sept by the way. They told me of the core desires of a woman’s heart and how the feminine heart is therefore wounded. One of my favorite moments recorded in the book (pg. 230) is one that came to me from my oldest daughter Ashley, who showed me a wonderful quote that she had found…
"Imagine a man so focused on God, that the only reason he looked up to see you is because he heard God say, 'That’s her'." She (Ashley) then said, “Dad, this is what I want.” Men, its what they all want...
That doesn’t happen very often. Maybe it is because we still live in an Epic story and contend with evil; spiritual forces that continue to assault love and tempt us each and everyone to believe we aren’t worthy, we won’t be pursued and we must arrange for love for ourselves. Our world, and frankly our ongoing experience, tells us the convincing lie that love is always conditional and never lasting. Just ask ½ of the folks who used to be married or all of the kids who used to be in those households whose mom and dad used to be married. Very few walk into the next chapters of life unscathed… very, very few.
It is why Jesus had the hardest time selling his wares. Few could see it, few could believe it and very ,very few would buy it. After all, nothing good is free. Jesus wasn’t received because He made it so hard. Jesus wasn’t received because He made it to easy. That’s what UNCONDITIONAL love does, invites the loved to take advantage, to enter in, to be vulnerable again and allow for its scandalous way to be experienced and enjoyed. Even tested.
So William Wallace marries in secret as not to have to share; as does Jesus… He comes in secret to the deep secret place of us, our hearts, to declare his love and whisper to us, “I love you and will not share you.” It is why and where the term jealousy has its substance, its potency. There must be love, over the top love in order for there to be jealousy. Our God is a jealous God, “No other God’s before Me”, He declares. Exodus 20:4-6. Its’ what John Mark McMillian had to write about in his worship song, How He Loves Us…
He is jealous for me.
Love's like a hurricane,
I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of
His wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory and
I realize just how beautiful You are and how great your affections are for me.
So Wallace avenges his true love. Declares war on the evil oppressors. Freedom is the result… a country of our own. Jesus will do the same someday, for now, it is war on the oppressors… Freedom is here and is coming and one day, one day, the love story will fully emerge and we will have a country of our own and live happily ever after.
