Chapter 44- Produced by God

"My power works best in weakness."

The scriptures are to me like the focus on a camera. When something you are capturing in the lens is out of focus, you know something is there and may even be able to make out most of the details. But once you turn that focusing ring and everything comes into clear contrast you have a perfect picture of what you are trying to capture.

In the same way, we can look at scripture and get the gist, know its true, even see how it applies in certain situations in others lives. But when God turns the focus ring on it in the circumstances of your life, he brings it into clear contrast and all of a sudden scripture comes to life and the power of God is SO obvious its almost overwhelming. He has brought 2 Corinthians 12:10 in to stark contrast for me this weekend.

God has fanned the flames of a passion that has been on my heart for quite some time now. One that I have written about in past blog posts and that is in need of future posts soon. For now I will tell you that I am investing my time and heart in the entertainment field and filmmaking and am taking the first steps in making that dream a reality. One of those steps presented itself in the form of an opportunity to help produce a project for my home church, Turning Point. A great friend and brother was asked to shoot the life stories of individuals who have given their lives to Jesus and he trusted me enough to allow me to come along beside him to create the short films. I was excited to take on the responsibility but aware that I had much to learn.

There's nothing like trial by fire. I like throwing myself into something and learning along the way. I felt God was asking me to "Go in the strength that you have" (Judges 6:14). However, along with that comes some very real challenges. I had made several films before this, but on a much smaller scale and a budget of practically nothing. So, this was a completely different caliber of project. It was definitely a lesson in what I didn't know I didn't know. It was also a lesson of putting my trust completely in God with this project. There were many obstacles of which getting over looked bleak at best. But God is a God of the improbable and the impossible. I'd like to recount some of the small miracles I witnessed God overcome for me.

First was the studio. Looking around I quickly realized that renting studio space was quite expensive. Also, things were getting down to the wire and spaces were quickly getting booked. So I needed the right space for the right price. Fortunately, I ran across an old acquaintance of mine who I still had a good relationship with who ran a studio in North Hollywood and was willing to give us a deal. This was a blessing not only because it included a lot of other needs but because of the location. It was so centrally located to everyone involved which I would find would become a huge bonus in other ways as well. There were some sound issues we had to work around, but I am grateful that we had a place to shoot at all. Not only that, but we had the opportunity to make an impact on the people at the studio. The employees at the studio kept speaking very highly of us and about how much they enjoyed our presence there. In fact, because of their good experience with us, they placed an ad inviting church groups to come and shoot there. I believe this was a testimony to the Spirit being present. Thanks God!

Then there was Thursday. I can't remember a more difficult day as far as work and coordinating in my life. I had so many balls in the air and was certain that at any point I would drop at least one of them. That was a day of relying on God to come through. There were a number of things that still needed to be locked down that were fairly essential for the shot to happen:

There was the camera rental. We needed an additional camera due to one deal falling through so I was scrambling to find a rental last minute. I searched a few different places and no one really had the package that we needed. I thought I had found something on craigslist, but that fell through as well. Finally, I got a hold of a rental company with the best customer service I could ask for. They had EVERYTHING that we needed and charged the same for all of it that another place wanted for just camera and lenses. We got everything rented and insured right in time. Besides that, it was just around the corner from where we were shooting which made some necessary runs we needed to do that much easier. It was the perfect place. On top of THAT, we shared our faith with the guy that rented our equipment and it turns out he's been looking for a place to worship. Thanks God!

Then there was the chair. Our director had a specific need and vision for the chair and again we didn't have one that Thursday before the shoot. We scrambled to find one and fortunately I had a wonderful assistant helping me. As she was gathering all the craft service food, she tracked one down the right one. We got the credit card in and reserved that thing 5 minutes before they closed. As far as delivery for it, my awesome roommate was available to bring it to set the following day. Oh, and it was under our budget. And I can't imagine this project without that particular chair. (We also got a sweet furry pillow)Thanks God!

Then there was the makeup. This one blows my mind a little. I had not fully understood the importance of really good makeup on this shoot and at 7pm I called our director and told him we still didn't have one. Well, that was not an option, so he made some calls and put me in touch with someone. Melanie got back to me and I explained the situation that we needed a makeup artist the next day. I also explained that we were non profit and had a very limited budget. She was available but as a professional, the money we were offering was peanuts. She brought her quote down a little but it was way out of our budget. I left a message with her letting her know that we were a church production and we just didn't have any money but asked if she would direct us to someone who would be interested. She texted back and agreed to do the job. However, she could only do the first half of the day. That left the second half. That's where my amazing girlfriend came in. It was kind of a fluke that I saw her that night, but as I mentioned what I was looking for, she mentioned that one of the young Christians in our group did makeup. She only knew this from a few days before which was why it was fresh on her mind. She also happened to be one of the talent the following day. Turns out she was free and willing to help us out. She was great and it was her first time doing on-camera makeup. She was so great that our director asked her back the second day to help us which made things flow so much better. I also have to give props to our other makeup artist who also donated her time and energy to helping us out. Thanks God!

I was so grateful for God coming through in the 11th hour like that, but He didn't stop performing miracles there. The following day we were taking quite a bit of time setting everything up and kept having to run back and forth to get supplies and rent other equipment (thank God for the central location). Our runner had just come back with some essential cables when he discovered that they were the wrong ones. We realized we needed to buy the different ones which was going to cost us about $80. As I was sending him out with petty cash to grab them, an AT&T guy came to the building to inspect something completely unrelated to the shoot. He heard our interaction and as the runner left he mentioned he had some cables in his van. I asked how much and he said $5 each. It would be $60 cheaper than what we were going to pay. I ran out and stopped the runner and the phone guy went to get the cables. And here's the kicker, when I tried to give him the money for them, he just told me to give it to someone in need. God hooked us up with free cables! Thanks God!

Other than that, the weekend was full of the miraculous stories of each individual. The Spirit moved and people shared vulnerably and powerfully. We have such a rich cross-section of people from all backgrounds sharing their testimony. One individual was struggling with back problems and almost wasn't able to make it. God came through and I am so glad we have his and so many others' story. Thanks God!

I cannot begin to thank all the people who donated their time to this project. It would not have happened without their generosity and hard work. Once again, I had a clear vision of how God designed His people to work together. I am sure there are so many other things that I forgot to mention.

God certainly filled the gaps where I was weak. His power was absolutely made perfect in my weakness. It was as if at every turn he was saying "I see your work. I know its tough. That thing you couldn't quite manage to do yourself? Here let me get that. Keep going! You'll catch on! You're doing great!"

God is the best producer in the world!

What are some ways that God has filled in the gaps of YOUR weaknesses?