“GOD PUT YOU IN MY WAY”

People, who know me, know that I am a movie buff. If I like a movie, I can quote whole scenes to you, and so it is with “The Four Feathers”, with Jennifer Hudson and Heath Ledger.

A short synopsis of the story: A young man joins a very prestigious military school and unit because his father expects it of him. When it’s time to go to war, he realizes how little he really wants to be a soldier. He tells his fiancé that he wants to resign his commission, and she is appalled that not will he be the object of scorn, but so would she as his wife, so she rejects him. He resigns his commission and is given a box containing four white feathers – the ultimate insult – the sign of a coward. Three are from his friends; one is from the woman he loved.

He lives a life of obscurity, then word comes that his former regiment and his friends have come under attack with terrible consequences. He takes what money he had and heads across the dessert alone to help his friends.

In his travels, he meets an Arab who was a scout at one time for the British Army, and in their friendship, he learns that he is less of a coward than he thought. At one point, he tells his new friend to leave and save himself. The man replies, “God put you in my way, and I must deal with you.”

Since this is a short synopsis, he finds his friends, and in battle, saves two of them, then goes to a Marti prison to save the last survivor.

He gets the last man back to England, only to learn that his fiancé is going to marry his best friend. His best friend was blinded in battle, and doesn’t know that the Heath Ledger character is the one who saved him and got him back to England alive. The two meet, and are saying goodbye, when some papers drop on the floor. As the sighted friend (Ledger) hands the papers to his blind friend, his friend realizes that this was who saved him in the dessert.

There is a church service where all the surviving soldiers honor those who died, and the blind man gives a speech about friendship in the heat of battle. He says that the glory of battles pales against the friendship of the man on your left and the man on your right; friends who will never desert you; honoring the man who learned he was not a coward.

The original couple leaves the church together, knowing that they will have a life together after all. She asks him what they will do now, and he answers, “God put you in my way and I must deal with you.” He laughs, his friend in the dessert laughs, and the movie ends.

Back to reality. Today, in the middle of a normal work day, God put someone in my way. I went to return some information, and ended up talking about the scriptures, and being ministered to at a time when I needed some affirmation about my path in life. I mean, how often does a near stranger start discussing the old testament with you, let alone parts that you have read that are somewhat obscure?

It just hit me today how often when we despair, or just lose interest in our future, that God puts someone "in our way", and we must deal with them. Once again, I am reminded that He is a good God and that He is always beside us, directing our every step if we just let Him.