I know, I know, I'm lagging behind because I've only just watched POTC: Stranger Tides on my mac. I downloaded it donkey years ago but only recently did it hit me that I have yet to check it out. Surprisingly, God spoke me to through the movie; not once but twice.

There was a scene where Captain Hector and his men were approaching mermaid waters- everyone starts panicking and a man ever jumps overboard just to avoid his terrible fate. In the midst of this, Hector calls for order and the well rehearsed lines that came out stunned me:

And a few of them started to cheer.

And with each sentence of confidence that rolled across the deck, it empowered them and though they were acting; it was obvious that they knew who they were serving. It encompassed them in such a way that that was their very core identity. It emboldened them and gave them the strength to continue sailing the seas toward their imminent deaths.

The next scene that struck me was when Hector and Blackbeard fought against each other in the cavern of the Fountain of Youth. Jack stood up before they fought and asked why was everyone going to fight against each other for the sake of two men. One of the sailors agreed and kept his sword whilst the others stood there, as if mortified by the very thought of abandoning their captain. The captains proceeded to yell out the command to fight and bloodshed ensued. What I did not get was that me being me, I would have let the two men sweat it out, perhaps grab a lemonade or two whilst they fought, cheering from the sidelines.

Then, it dawned upon me. The crew found their sense of identity in their captain. Their hope, their dreams and ambitions are all placed solely on this one man. They would give up everything for him, they were almost as loyal to him as the roman soldiers of Alexander the Great. Without this man, there was no reason to live unless they found another captain. All they wanted was someone to lead them; they would be more than willing to go over to the other captain's side as soon as their own captain died.

I remember this one time, Austin spoke to us about security. He said that we should be secure in God and secure in ourselves. He said that we should be secure in ourselves more than in God because perhaps if one day God ( captain) were to disappear ( which is virtually impossible but this is just an analogy so stay with me), and if our security were in God, we would have nothing and be insecure. If we were secure in ourselves and, again, if God (captain) disappears ( impossible), we would still continue living and still know who we are. Yet, even as we are living and God is still here, are we fully depending on Him and giving Him our dreams and ambitions, is our hope in Him?

Also, if you are going through a difficult time, if you feel like disappearing from church, if you feel that you will never make it out of whatever darkness surrounds you, let me ask you this:

Therefore, will not the grace and empowerment of God be upon us to succeed and claim the victory that rightfully belongs to us?