Cast Away

One of my favorite movies is Cast Away with Tom Hanks. It's an older movie but I have seen it so many times. For those of you who have never seen it, Tom Hanks was an employer of FedEx and while flying over the ocean their plane went down. Tom was the only survivor and managed to find his way to an island in the middle of nowhere. 

He was on the island for four years. He never gave up hope. It was just him and his volleyball that he named Wilson. Wilson became his best friend along with any other sign that he might be able to find his way back home. Eventually, Tom made a raft and a cargo liner found him out at sea. 

That probably wasn't the best movie summary that I have given, but I hope you get the point that Tom was stranded for four years and never gave up hope.

Much like Tom in Cast Away, God gives us all sorts of signs that we must pay attention to. 

"God testified to us by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will." (Hebrews 2:4)

All of the time God is testified through sings, wonders, miracles, and through gifts. If we are aware of what is going on, we should never drift away. There are enough signs that we shouldn't miss out on them. The key is just being aware. 

See, in Cast Away, FedEx packages were always washing up the shore on the island and those signs reminded Tom of things from back home. There were times when he would get extremely down, but all of a sudden a package would wash up and restore hope. If packages weren't washing up on the shore, there always seemed to be other signs off in the distance. 

A key to Tom recognizing these signs is that he was paying attention to them. He was looking out for any little sign to give him hope. This is something that we need to do. When times get tough and it seems like there ins't any hope out there, it probably means that you aren't paying attention. 

I promise you, that God is always giving you signs of hope. 

We must pay attention to the signs...

"We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away." (Hebrews 2:1)

The moment we stop paying attention is when we miss out on all of the good things that are out there. It's a slippery slope once you stop...It's a slippery slope right into a pit and how are we ever going to escape if we ignore such a great salvation? 

The thing I want you to all understand with this is that we must pay attention to all of the signs that are out there from God. The moment that we start to ignore those signs is the moment we forgot where out salvation comes from. 

We need to be like Tom Hanks in Cast Away...he was alone for four years, didn't have anything, and he never gave up hope. He fought to find every good sign that he could and because of that he made it home. 

Pay attention and fight!