A few years ago I was invited to watch a movie with some new friends. Quickly I agreed and we spent the next couple hours in comfortable silence watching (what I took to be) a light romantic comedy.

Once the feature ended one of the group stood at the front of the room and asked, “So what do you think the director's world view was?”

And for the next 30 minutes or so we dissected the movie. Everything from cultural context to religious influence came up. For me it was an uncomfortable experience and I left wondering if I had ended up in some sort of movie critique class. Suffice to say the movie no longer felt “light” or “funny.”

But I've never forgotten it. And I haven't watched movies the same since then either.

Life is the same way. I'm sure you can think of people who float through life like nothing touches them, and others who have something to say about everything. They're two extremes. Most people probably fall somewhere in the middle, thinking deeply about some topics, and simply enjoying others. But how does one decide which things to focus on? Where does someone learn which things are important enough to pay close attention to? How do you recognize when something isn't right?

The key is discernment. Chuck Swindoll describes discernment as changing your mind from neutral to in gear, as becoming engaged in our times instead of being swept along by the problems.

In his message The Disturbing Realities of Our Times, Chuck draws our attention to three troubling changes taking place in our world and gives us the tools to help us become people of discernment. A person with discernment has the courage to see what is really happening and then operate his or her life based on what is right.

The Disturbing Realities of Our Times is our free mp3 for the month of October. Download this discerning message today. This is a message to take seriously.