Be the Light: Homestead
If you haven’t figured it out already, I tend to have prepper leanings. Maybe I’ve been in America too long. Or I have too little faith in my fellow man. Or I’m paranoid. Or all of the above. No surprise, I’m a fan of the Homestead book and tv series. The official description is: “A former green beret and other survivors take refuge inside an elaborate compound when an attack on America leaves the world in chaos.”
And it is awesome. A little bit dark but really entertaining. I appreciate it as there are clearly Christian undertones and the action and drama is good. I’d also say the tradecraft is good on the shooting and tactics side.
Jenna the owner ends up opening the gates and her supplies to the wider community. This puts the homestead on the radar of some vicious gangs and even power hungry government officials. So this homestead is attacked often. There is a scene after one of these major attacks where the homestead loses several people, Jenna starts to regret her generosity. The scene is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gbGFl9zCr0
But one of her lieutenants tells her: "I wish it didn't have to be like this. People like this, they would have been coming no matter what.
But I'll tell you this caught a glimpse of the other side. What the homestead really means to people. We're talking about you, talking about what you do here. How you opened up the gates and shared the bread. Your bread down there means hope to people. Not only did you restart trade and you restarted trust. Be proud of that. Means something to people. Including me.”
She still feels regret: “This is my fault. Ian was right. But maybe we should have stayed to ourselves. We shouldn't open the gates.”
Her brother-in-law says: “Listen to me. I wasn't gone that long and I didn't get that far, but I saw enough to know this. This place, your homestead, you are a light. It's worth defending. So, yeah, there's going to be some hard times and some hard decisions, but without that light, what's the point?"
So besides the drama, what is the point here? For me, I believe hard times are coming. It’s a certainty. We’ve had it too good for too long. And there will be turmoil and lots of bad people out there.
But there is always hope. And you can always do good for others, everyday. So I aspire to be the light for my family, my friends, my neighbors and my community. Strength, honor, hope & light will be what will get us through these challenging times.