I’ve become a bit hooked on the TV show Person of Interest. I started watching it last fall because I really like the two stars, Jim Caviezel (aka Jesus in Passion of the Christ) and Michael Emerson (aka Ben Linus of Lost).
The whole premise of this series is that Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson), a mysterious billionaire, developed a computer program for the government that predicts terrorist threats in New York City. It was designed as a means to prevent another 9/11-type disaster, but Finch discovered that it was also predicting many “irrelevant” (non-terrorist) violent crimes. The non-terrorist data is dumped to a separate database and deleted each night. Finch realized that a great many domestic crimes could also be prevented if that data could be used. Finch built a back door into the machine that allows him to retrieve a list of Social Security Numbers of people who will be involved in those crimes in order of occurrence. Unable to investigate on his own, Finch hires John Reese (Jim Caviezel), a former Green Beret and CIA field officer who is presumed dead, to help stop the crimes from taking place. Finch made the choice of only transmitting the Social Security Numbers of the persons of interest so that if the back door is discovered, the government would have no clue as to what the numbers mean, or who is acting on the data. (From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_Interest_(TV_series))
As I was watching last night’s episode, it dawned on me that I am a Person of Interest (POI), perhaps not in the sense that the television show depicts, but a POI nonetheless.
You had to know I was going to say this: I am a Person of Interest to God. Do you have any idea how awesome that is? But I am also a Person of Interest to the enemy, Satan. Not so awesome. But if you will allow me to draw some parallels to the TV program, I think you’ll see what I mean.
Like Finch, who gets the daily list of Social Security numbers to deal with, I get my to-do list from God. Finch can choose to ignore the numbers and let the crimes happen without his intervention, just as I can choose to ignore what God is telling me to do. Finch needs assistance as he works on each case, which is where Reese comes in. I need help to do what God has entrusted me to do, so I call on the Holy Spirit to guide and direct me, and I ask friends or family to stand with me.
But there are always the bad guys. As soon as Finch and Reece get going on their current task, the enemies show up and do everything they can to stop the progress. Well, I have an enemy too – that puss-head, Satan. (Thanks, Dad, for that very visual nickname!) Whenever I start diving into the next level in my walk with Jesus, there’s the devil, attempting to thwart me at every turn. It takes perseverance, determination, and faith to keep him off my back. Sometimes that means taking a different direction than I had originally planned. And sometimes it means plowing through, with the Sword of the Spirit drawn. In any case, I’ve got to put my Armor on and keep it on.
Yes, I am a Person of Interest. I am of great interest to God, the Father, who loves me and let His only Son die to give me eternal life. He has a plan for my life and He is unfolding that plan as I step forward, keeping my eyes on Jesus. And I am a Person of Interest to the enemy, who really, REALLY wants to distract me from God’s plan and, in plain English, wants to destroy me. You don’t get one without the other.
Think about that.
Inside the Writer 