My 15 year old son Caleb was watching this movie we had rented the other night when I heard him holler at me, ‘Dad, you’ve got to see this movie, you will love it.’  Caleb knows of my love for epic battle and great adventure, and so the next night I watched In the Name of the King, A Dungeon Siege Tale.  Wow, he was right, I loved it!  Not so much for the action, although that was good, but rather for the story.

It is the story of Farmer (played by Jason Statham).  Farmer is … a farmer.  That is what he loves.  He lives a simple quiet life in the country with a stunning wife and a handsome son.  Farmer doesn’t have a lot of needs or wants in his life, he is content to work the land, love his wife and raise his son.  Honorable characteristics really.

But then the Krug attack his safe world.  A type of ruthless, supernatural, and amoral creature (sound familiar?), they brutally kill his young son and capture his wife.  Farmer is grief stricken.  The King of the land and his army arrive and try to recruit Farmer and the other villagers into the king's service to fight this menace, but Farmer will have none of it.  His only concern is to find a way to exact revenge and maybe save his wife, trying desperately to put things back into some type of order; and so he turns his back on the king.  The king’s magus, a type of prophetic figure, finds Farmer and recognizes something unique in him.  As he finds him grieving the loss of his family, he asks him a question. The magus asks, “Does it occur to you, Farmer, that there are events and circumstances of greater importance than the loves and losses of our lives?”  To which Farmer replies, “No, it doesn’t occur to me.”  As he walks off, the aged magician says, ’be safe Farmer, your king needs you.”

You see, what Farmer does not know yet is that he is the long lost son of the King, the heir to the throne.  It is he, and he alone, who has the power to destroy this evil that has taken over the kingdom.  And it will only be as he steps into his rightful place in the kingdom, that his dream of a life of joy has any hope of being realized.

I love that story, for it is our story!  We too have drawn plans of what our perfect little world would look like.  We too have often seen it devastated by an enemy that is ruthless, supernatural and amoral.  And like Farmer, our response also is to try harder, to scramble and somehow make things right on our own, to minimize the damage and recreate the illusion of safety.  And our King has also called us, to a much greater battle, yet like Farmer, it too has not occurred to us that his call is of greater importance than the loves and losses of our lives.  So we go off, on our own, trying to find our own way.

But … and this is an important ‘but’ … we too are heirs, heirs to a king … heirs to The King. ‘Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ’ is how Paul put it (Romans 8:17). 

You see, we are needed at this critical time.  The days of happy-go-lucky day-dreams are gone.  A battle is upon us and the kingdom awaits you taking your rightful place in the kingdom. 

The kingdom needs you!  Our King would not have placed us on this earth if it were not so.

Has it occurred to you?


To the King,

David