Who Believes In You?

    

Robin Hood: You'll grow into it  (Buena Vista Distribution)

And the Lord said, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." (Luke 22:31-32, KJV)

In the Gospel of Luke, Simon Peter must have been troubled when Yeshua told him that Satan was looking to sift all of them (the disciples) like wheat (See the footnote at the bottom of the page for a better explanation of the difference between thee, thou, and you as expressed in The King James version of the Bible). 1.  But then Yeshua talks directly in the singular to Peter and speaks into his life.  He tells Peter that he's praying for him that he doesn't fail and that when he's converted or turned back that he'll strengthen his fellow disciples.

Jesus took the time to speak into Peter's life on many occasions.  Jesus saw beyond what Peter could see because Peter, like many of us, could not see beyond what was here and now.  It's hard to say "he believed in Peter" because that sounds rather strange in Biblical language - but in terms of the context of the English language - "believing in someone" is an English idiom that refers not in worshipping a person - it's more about encouraging someone because you see greatness or potential in them and you are ultimately seeing what God sees in that person... because God knows their heart and the fullest expression of the gifts He gave them.

When God works in our lives - we can do all things.  God believes not in our carnal nature, but in being who He created us to be.  To be greater than how the world around us sees us.  That's how we need to see our children, our spouses, our friends, and those who are in our sphere of influence.  We need to see the greatness in them and encourage them to excel in those God-given gifts and talents.

And as filmmakers we really need people to believe in us - to encourage us to be greater - to see the greatness in us.  In filmmaking - this difficult artistic expression takes a lot more time than most other artistic endeavors - because all of the facets of the arts combined are needed to complete an excellent film (writing, directing, acting, music, photography, theater, etc...) And therefore it's so much harder for many who genuinely have the gift to actually excel at that gift in the beginning.   It takes experience of making many films to usually break through and for people to see the talent manifested in its greatness.  Even the cinema greats like Spielberg and Robert Rodriguez spent hours and hours making short films before hey became renowned in their field.  Now I get that some are so gifted or happened to be in the right place at the right time and that doors opened for them to become respected as filmmakers right away.  But for most of us, it takes a lot more time and hard work to move up the ladder.  And it doesn't usually happen overnight.

Pike: "There's greatness in you."  (Paramount Pictures)

When we have confidence, we can achieve so many more greater things than when people or spiritual forces are out to get us - out to sift us like wheat, out to cut us down or only see what is undeveloped in us as failure.  Think about it when you're on a sports team - what happens if your teammates don't believe in you and think you suck and tell you so - you will have a lot harder time being your best.  If your spouse doesn't believe in you or your kids or your parents - it's going to be a lot harder to achieve greatness in that part of your life.  Sometimes you might feel all alone and you must then trust God all the more and have confidence and encourage yourself.  That's the hardest thing to do if you feel all alone.

But then think about how much better you can do when someone is rooting for you on the sidelines.  When a boss, a teacher, or a parent, for example, see potential in you, when your spouse cheers you on - something great begins to manifest in you when this is going on.

When I was younger, I played little league and soccer with a community league and I was pretty lousy at sports.  A lot of times I was daydreaming like Walter Mitty and not really paying attention and wasn't focused which was pretty much my youthful failure at elementary school soccer.  But with baseball it was a general fear of the ball.  In school gym class - the trend continued for me when nobody wanted me on the Kickball team. They even picked girls over me to be on the team. I was one of the last kids picked.  It was pretty humiliating.

But then as I got older, something happened to me when I made some friends who I felt comfortable around. People who just liked me for who I was.  My friends and I were all playing a game of baseball one day.  We were all about the high school age and we had friends on my team and the opposing team.  All of a sudden I got this incredible boost of confidence.  I had nothing to prove and I was with friends.  So when the ball came my way I started slamming the ball really far out into the field.  My friends began cheering me on who were on my team and I just kept hitting the ball really well and this confidence rose up in me.  All of a sudden I was a champion.

How did I get that confidence?  My friends believed in me and I began to believe I was good.

Pike: "I believe in you." (Paramount Pictures)

As filmmakers we need to be around friends and colleagues who believe in us.   We need favor with people to go to the next level.   Especially when working in an industry like this where there are so many media projects out there calling for the attention of audiences.  Why should people choose our films over others.   Criticism can also be extremely harsh for even the greatest of filmmakers.    Take George Lucas, for example, who had already made a name for himself after making the successful American Graffiti.  It's hard to believe he didn't have support to make Star Wars in 1977.  It was reported that Lucas even suffered from serious health issues due to the stress from making Star Wars. A lot of people weren't really taking him seriously when he was making the film.  Even the actors were joking and fooling around on the set.  They had no idea what Star Wars was destined to become.  And this was after Lucas' American Graffiti was one of the most profitable movies of all time.  So what turned things around for George Lucas?   One important person made all the difference in the world: Alan Ladd, Jr, from Twentieth Century Fox.  He believed in George Lucas and saw the talent him and his influence opened the door to get Star Wars made and once it was released it became a smash hit.

Now think about how much harder it is for someone who professes faith in Jesus Christ who makes films especially for the Christian film genre and have little budgets or rely solely on volunteers.  They might even call themselves Christian filmmakers.  So how much more opposition is there because Christian films already have a reputation for being subpar, lousy, cheesy, and preachy.  And before people even watch the film made by Christians, they have already judged it and it makes our work that much harder.  We have that much more to prove in making films with great stories and with excellence.

                                                             

When I journeyed into the desert of Texas in an RV with my family into the unknown... with no job, no income, my life was a wreck.  I was at the lowest point of my life.  My hopes and dreams were shattered.  My one film I had spent a lot of time working on that I thought would save the day - ended up getting poor promotion, and got rushed by me due to the desperation I was dealing with.  I attempted to stream it online as a web series, but very few people heard about it and so very few people watched it.  I felt so discouraged.  But something that happened before that time helped to keep me going.

Before selling my house and going into the RV - there were a lot of signs that this financial storm was about to come on my life and I really didn't know how to resolve it.  Things were getting worse and worse for me financially.  I had one well meaning person close to me telling me that I should put aside filmmaking because they saw me heading into a pit that I was ignoring.  Perhaps they thought I should just put it on hold for a while.  I don't know.  Either way they were seeing filmmaking as a failure for me and believed this pursuit was hurting my family and that I should get out of it before it was too late.  They saw the failure.    I kept defending myself.  "You'll see!" I said.  "God is just bringing me low.  He did this for many of his people in the Bible.   It's part of the process.  One day you'll understand because you can't see right now!"  Unfortunately I was having a hard time actually believing what I was saying because I was starting to crack and extremely fearful at the time.  I didn't know how long i could hold out anymore to encourage myself.

So right after this negative experience, a friend of mine hired me to work on a short film that he was making with his family.  He wasn't a filmmaker.  He just had some money and wanted to make something with his family to give them a fun experience.   He also knew I could use the financial assistance and the film work.   He's that kind of person.  My friend is a college professor who has always invited me to speak in his class and to share about my work.  He has always looked at me with assurance.  He has always believed that I am someone special and a genuinely gifted filmmaker.  And when I've spoken in his class - I've felt very confident - because he has believed in me.

So at this moment of my life - working on my friend's short film - I was feeling pretty lousy inside.  I was feeling conflicted, torn, and guilty within myself - feeling like a failure.  Then this friend of mine, this teacher, this encourager who had no clue that I was dealing with such things - went into his shed and told me he wanted to give something to me.  He came out with this brick that he said came from the old DeMille house in Eastern north Carolina. He managed to get a number of them when they tore the house down.  The famous film pioneer Cecile B. DeMille's parents actually had a house in Eastern North Carolina and he lived there in his childhood.

You can't imagine what this did for me.  The timing, the boost of encouragement from a simple brick.  I was honored that he gave me one.  And when I was traveling through the wilderness in that RV and things were so much worse financially for me - I was constantly reminded by this brick - not as an idol or anything like that - but as a reminder that God would have the final say on my career even when everything looked like a failure around me.

We need encouragers around us.  We need people to believe in us and encourage us because sometimes we can feel very lonely in our calling as filmmakers.  Even in our churches - Christians have failed on many occasions to encourage their brothers and sisters in this calling.  The body of Messiah is not immune to this type of behavior.  Even the book of Acts tells us that the Apostle Paul coudn't see what God was up to with John Mark who wrote one of the Gospels.  God instead used Barnabas who was known as the "son of encouragement" who believed in John Mark and parted with Paul in keeping him around (See Acts 15:39).   Thank God for Barnabas. If it wasn't for him, perhaps we'd only have three Gospels and not four.

The Church, thankfully, is beginning to encourage Christians as filmmakers at this time.  But for many years they didn't understand what filmmakers were going through.  To this day many still don't completely understand our struggle.  We need people to be like Barnabas around us.  We need people to be in our corner, who see the greatness in us who are like Yeshua was - praying for us and speaking destiny and purpose into our lives.  So think about the people who are in your sphere.  Think of the people who encourage you.  Who believes in you?  Spend time with them... it will be a faith builder.

And we need to be like this with others around us.  Don't forget to encourage some other filmmakers today. You never know if God may be using you at this moment to speak life and hope into their lives.  It's a lonely place for filmmakers (whether Christian or not) as it is.  I believe that Christains making films are even lonelier in this journey because they are dealing with additional things like spiritual warfare, guilt, and conflict on so many more levels.  Encourage your brothers and sisters today who are filmmakers..  If you are a parent to a filmmaker, encourage your son or daughter.  If you're a spouse, encourage your husband or wife.  It will mean so much more than you can imagine.  And you might witness a miraculous transformation and see God using you in an amazing way.

Adrian to Rocky: "Win!" (United Artists)

Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
(Proverbs 16:24, KJV)

1. The King James translation (written in an early version of Modern English) helps us to better understand the Greek translation of "you" being plural and "thou" being singular for the English word "you" providing the actual context of these two verses.