Sticking through it all

flightplan
Originally uploaded by mincaye.

I watched Flightplan with my brother, Kevin, just now.

Simple plot, but well acted out. Among the top five movies I've seen this year; Batman Begins is still unrivalled.

At first, I had intended to draw parallels between Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster's character in the movie) and God, but eventually realised that she has more in common with us than with the Father.

I shall not elaborate my thoughts in too much detail, lest I spoil the surprises awaiting those of you who intend to watch the movie, so these are some general reflections.

One thing we have in common with Kyle is a mission or task to accomplish, else some kind of goal to aim for. Along the way, there will be many detractors; voices will whisper much sense, but bad sense. They will be logical, and much of the advice will be good. But it will not be what we need.

Sometimes we will have to depend on whatever vague glimpses we have of the truth, in order to carry on and not give in. Immediate sense and experience will often dictate otherwise, but the sentiment and values that are constantly built up within us must prevail.

In all things, we must be wise to use the gifts God has given us. Kyle is an aircraft engineer, and she uses all that she knows of the very aircraft she designed, to do what she had set out for.

One of the last lines uttered in the movie, was "She never gave up." Will we, at the end of our journeys, be able to say, "I have fought the good fight, I have run the race, I have kept the faith"?

Here, I am reminded of Steven Curtis Chapman's song 'Burn the Ships';

In the spring of 1519
A Spanish fleet set sail
Cortez told his sailors
This mission must not fail

On the eastern shore of Mexico
They landed with great dreams
But the hardships of the new world
Made them restless and weak

Quietly they whispered
"Let's go back to the life we knew"
But the one who led them there was saying

Burn the ships
We're here to stay
There's no way we could go back
Now that we've come this far by faith
Burn the ships
We've passed the point of no return
Our life is here so let the ships burn

May our ships burn, till the one thing that remains is a flame that continues to burn for the One who brought us here. A flame that burns both night and day, like the lampstand in the tabernacle.

"As I press on to take hold of that
For which Christ Jesus took hold of me"
-- S.C. Chapman, 'Hold on to Jesus'