In the film The Monuments Men, a woman named Claire Simone (played by Cate Blanchett), lives a very ordinary life in Paris under the oppressive Nazi regime. She's an art enthusiast who was forced to facilitate the pillaging of the great works of art of Paris. But despite the seeming hopelessness of her situation, Claire carefully cataloged each piece of art, and marked it with a small colored sticker (a "seal" you could say). She kept this catalog without knowing whether it would ever be useful or just a dusty record of art—or if it would be confiscated and destroyed. She kept meticulous records without any hope that it would come to anything. Not until James Granger (played by Matt Damon) shows up asking about these pieces of art, does an opportunity arise for her risky bookkeeping to pay off.

But up to that point, during the majority of her record-keeping, she had no idea that the Monuments Men would come along. She had no idea that anyone else cared. She was one woman in a city occupied by one of the most powerful militaries on the planet. She was one woman battling against the whole Nazi-engineered system. And for all the time before James Granger arrived, she kept working subversively and systematically, without any assurance that her work would ever be put to use.

In a similar way, Christians live in territory occupied by the Enemy. It's tempting to give up hope that our work for Christ—our small deeds of compassion and kindness, our faithfulness to our families and jobs and churches—will come to anything. But unlike Claire, Christians have an assurance of hope. Christ's resurrection guarantees our future. Our service to Christ may feel insignificant, and yet Claire exhibits for Christians an inspiring example of how to live faithfully in Enemy-occupied territory.