Entrusted with Arrows - A Movie Review

I recently had an opportunity to preview the film "Entrusted with Arrows".  My wife clued me in to their link on Facebook.  When I watched the trailer I knew this was a "must see" movie for me.  I wasn't disappointed.

The movie is a documentary that focuses on a few families that have something in common; the father of each family has "come home".

When I watch the movie, I get this tingle in the back my neck and it sort of flushes my face.  I think I feel that way because I know exactly why they did what they did.  In every case, they left a stable job with career potential to start a family business.  Some did it voluntarily...others did not.  But in any case, they all recognized that it was time to leave the workplace.

It was time to come home.

This wasn't so foreign a concept even 100 year ago.  In fact, it was the norm.  Families engaged in business together, whether it was operating the family farm, running the local mercantile or grain mill, or renting out rooms to weary passengers.  They had cottage business that arose; jams and jellies, candles, baked goods, and soaps.  They did what they had to do to survive.

And they did it together.

I realize that not every man from the previous centuries was home constantly, nor would I expect him to be. There are jobs that must be done away from home.   Yet the simple fact is that it's a man's God given responsibility to lead his family.  This cannot be done if he does not heavily invest in that family.  And how can he heavily invest in his family if the majority of his time is spent elsewhere?  The 20th Century, and the continued propagation of the Industrial Age, has embedded into the minds of men that we must leave home for at least 40 hours per week in order to "work".  Anything less is considered lazy.  But it's not so.  A man does not have to leave his homestead to be productive.  Having a job away from the home is no sin.  But have we given into the lie that says our corporation, our place of employment, is what defines our productivity?

Again I say it is not so.  With the advent of technology, it seems that we are learning.  Men are coming home, with home as their base of operations.  Whole families are able to work from home.  There are some who are heeding the call to transition from a decentralized family model to a centralized one.

I think that is what I was most impressed with as I watched Entrusted with Arrows.  This movie highlighted candid conversations about the transition and the fear involved.  Each man addresses the fact that he struggled, to one extent or other, with fear.  Yet each overcame that fear.  How joyous to the ears to hear that a man was indeed fearful, as all men will be, but trusted God.  In so doing a man becomes brave.  I need to hear that.  It's like a shot of courage in the arm.

I've heard of similar stories from men whose hearts have been turned toward home.  At times, the stories do not mention fear and I have been left to wonder if they did not struggle at all with this sort of transition.  This was not the case with Entrusted with Arrows.  The leading men were open about their fears and their conquests.

In all, I'd like to say thank you to the Movie Makers.  Like a fire on a winter's day, they brought cheer and inspiration to me, reminding me that with God, all things are possible.

For more information, check them out here.