So I watched a movie the other day that has been bothering me like crazy, and I have been thinking about it a lot. The movie was “Taken”. Yea, Yea, I know! What took me so long? That movie is so old right? Well that’s not the point. I think no matter how old it is it brings up some good points and ideas to think about.

Those of you who have already seen this movie, skip to the next paragraph. But the rest of you let me quickly brief you. A father, divorced from a marriage with one daughter, feels bad about spending most of his life away from the daughters’ life as, I am assuming, a secret service or CIA agent. While trying to make up, the x wife and daughter makes him feel bad for not letting the 16 year old girl go to Paris with her 19 year old friend, accusing him of being to paranoid. Feeling the pressure and wanting to bridge the gap between them, he allows her to go. While there, they are tricked by a sweet talking “spotter”, and abducted into a human trafficking movement. During the abduction, the father was able to talk to the daughter on her cell phone, and get vital information that allows him to travel to Paris and start on the trail of recovering her.

First, I loved the fathers’ wisdom and instinct that others wrongly referred to as him being paranoid. But as he so rightly put it, he wasn’t being paranoid, he was simply aware. As parents, children and spouses, perhaps we could all take a moment and think why others might be uneasy about things, and maybe consider that they might know something we don’t. Who knows, maybe the Spirit has whispered to their hearts something that we are to proud to hear, especially our parents who are called to watch over and pray for us. I know from personal experience that if I would have listened to my parents’ advice, I would have suffered less of life’s hard lesions.

The second point is the condition of the world that requires us to be watchful in prayer continually and listening for the quiet whispers and the enticing of the spirit. We live and a sick and dark world! But wait… its not that bad right? The world is not that wicked! Tell me something, does God look upon sin with the least degree of allowance? These people were masters and subjects to greed, powerful drugs and the sinful desires of sex and addiction. They were selling young woman, daughters of God, as slaves to fulfill their sinful desires! If that is not wickedness, if that does not make God shake in anger and sadness, what does? And this sort of thing is happening all over the earth! And more, you don’t have to look far to find similar things happening around you. Be careful to think that the world will get much worse before the end, because I think it’s already bad enough off. If you are waiting for things to get worse, you might miss the point.

Time passes everyday and yes, the world does grow darker. But it also grows brighter. The bad things in this world are only to often put on the front page and published for all to see long before we see the good and great things that are growing in frequency and numbers. But don’t bee fooled. The light is increasing as well, and the gray area in between is shrinking smaller and smaller, ‘till soon it will be no more.

Like the father that came to the rescue of this young girl, we to have a rescuer. The Savior is on the track and He will not abandon us. In our darkest hours, He gives us hope, comfort and light. Lets always trust in Him, and He will take us by the hand and lead us for good.

-Chet