1000:1

Ok, so you're trying to follow your dreams. You're trying to do the impossible. You've set a goal that seems unattainable. You've found the situation where faith is possible.

Now what?

Bust your ass, that's what.

Did you see my moment of glory on IG the other day? Looked cool, right? Looked like a writer/director savouring a moment of victory, of relief, of catharsis. Right?

Well, it was.

But you know what? That moment was one moment after a thousand moments of toil, uncertainty, conflict, and drudgery. No joke. Honestly, that one 'good moment' came after more than a thousand moments of trial. I spent, for sure, several hundred moments of trial writing the episode I'd just watched that made me cry in that photo. Then I spent several hundred more while prepping to shoot and shooting the thing. We haven't even talked about sitting for, literally, WEEKS watching every single shot in nearly 25 TB of footage.

Try that one on for size.

That's all before I had to sit down and watch all the 'story content' (as opposed to the visual stuff) and try to find a way to make ten different perspectives work together to tell, not just a coherent story, but an inspiring one that will make people cry with joy.

What a task.

How does this apply to you?

Well, you might not be a husband/father/filmmaker/pastor/preacher/coach/sailor but there's a very good chance you're right in the middle of trying to do something VERY hard and you're feeling like the task is all but impossible.

My word of encouragement to you today? 

Keep going.

Trudging.

Climbing.

Striving.

Busting your tail to try and make the thing happen that you're seeing in your mind's eye.

You can do it. You just have to hang on, log the hours, do the work.

Even if you're facing a 1000:1 ratio.

Have at it kids.

T

Step by step...

Been a while.

I've been thinking that I'll try to get a little more reliable in this here space.

There have been a few things on the go that have kept me rather chained to my desk (or to the steering wheel of my car or to the seat of a trans-oceanic jet or to the couch of an edit suite) principally, shooting and beginning to cut THE BOOK: fact or fairytale, the biggest filmmaking endeavour of my and my business partners career, working to lock, locking and starting in the Lead Pastor role at a new church, getting the kids back to school while launching my seventh season as a football coach and re-building our backyard shed, just for fun.

Sheesh.

It's been crazy.

Shooting THE BOOK was one of the most immersive, difficult and challenging things I've ever done as a director but, once I got into the edit suite, it became quickly apparent that it's--by far--the best thing I've ever been a part of. This is due, in large part, to a very compelling subject, very excellent collaborators, and enough resources to (for the FIRST time in my ENTIRE life) capture, in real life, what I initially saw in my imagination. Seriously, the first time in 20 years of doing this. I'm either a really 'late bloomer' or it's REALLY hard to 'make it' on your own terms in this crazy show-business world.

Anyway, it makes me emotional every time I get to work with the material; that's how thankful I am to have this kind of stuff to work with.

Grateful.

That's also an apt description of how I feel to be back in the pulpit/pastorate again. It's funny, maybe I've mellowed significantly over the years, or maybe--after a fairly long layoff and some cataclysmic years on a personal level--I'm just 'broken' enough to be thankful enough that things that used to really 'bug' me about this side of my career, don't seem to get under my skin like they used to. I'm just happy to be there doing what I can to partner with God in His ongoing work of seeing hope brought to people who need it.

My wife thinks it's much simpler than all that...

She thinks I'm having a mid-life crisis.

My line to that is equally simple; "Well, at least I'm not buying convertibles and going after strange flesh; I'm making movies and taking churches..."

To which, she just shrugs her shoulders and smiles that knowing smile which suggests to me she might be hedging her bets.

Sweet girl.

(I'll show you girl, with houses and happiness and holidays)

Bottom line, it's a crazy time, a good time and I'm doing everything I can to simply 'do the work' required to try and achieve greatness.

Which usually means waking up at 3:15AM 'cause I can't stop my mind from racing...

Happy times.

T