I Prayed For A Harvest, How God Answered In A Personal Way
(Here we are with two of our amazing writers, Brian Bird and John Wierick)
The first trip I ever took alone was from my home in Los Angeles, California on a road trip with friends to their home in a far corner of Idaho. I was ten. Most of the community spent their days farming spuds and their work patterns and surroundings were as different as what I experienced as a city-girl could possibly be.
We spent nights spread out in sleeping bags on their massive trampoline for slumber parties and took long trips into “town” to buy supplies or go bowling. But the thing that remained constant there were reminders that this was potato country-a place where farmers drove dangerous machinery that scattered the golden landscape, where men labored early in the morning, and that in time, there would be a harvest.
For the last several years, I have felt much like I imagine those farmers felt. My husband and I are producers for TV and Film and our goal is to reach an underserved market of faith and family-friendly audiences with shows and films that honor God and inspire others.
But the soil here in Hollywood is tough to plow through. The seeds we scatter don’t spring up at regular and steady intervals. And though we labor day and night, the crops we seek takes years to produce.
This week, we have two shows in particular that we have been working on for years in one way or another. We have created the ideas, written the documents, gathered the team, and offered our goods to those who sit in places of power, and now we wait for the rain to come and we watch to see if this will be our long-awaited for season of harvest.
As much as this week sits pregnant with possibility, it also symbolizes for us a deep faith and trust that God knows what is best and we do not-that His timing is divine and also good and that a physical harvest may not be the only harvest we will see.
The potato is predictable and once planted and nurtured will grow and materialize into something of sustenance. But for the faith-friendly Hollywood producer, nothing comes with a guarantee and the timelines are almost always longer than you want them to be. It builds faith, character, and perseverance-which we know produces hope.
So here we are, settling into hope knowing that when our trust is placed in the Creator of the harvest instead of the fruit itself, that we already have an abundance of plenty.
God is a personal God and He speaks to our hearts in specific ways if we are willing to listen.
Yesterday, I posted an update on my Facebook accounts and asked my friends to pray for us-to pray for these two TV shows that will be decided on this week. I asked them to pray that this would be “a season of Harvest” for us.
This morning, I woke and turned to my daily portion of Bible reading. This is what it said:
He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” Mark 4:26-29
God, in His providential way, spoke to my heart.
I don’t know if this week will result in one or both of our shows being picked up and moving forward. I can’t predict what conditions will be put in place or if the deals that may be offered-if any are offered at all-will be good for our company. But I do know that sewing the seeds has meaning and value regardless of the results because my husband and I continue to listen for that still small voice of God whispering to us, “this is the way, walk in it.”
Write shows that bring life and edify those who watch.
Be sincere and kind to everyone you encounter, unconditionally.
Keep your word, even when it costs you something.
Take time to rest and pour your lives into your precious sons.
Be like a tree planted in the desert that neither wilts nor breaks when the winds blow hard.
And continue to leave the risks of pursuing God in a Godless place up to Him.
From my vantage point on the eve of seeing a harvest, the crops look full of beauty and ready to be gathered. It’s a spiritual seed that has been planted in our own hearts and watered with the Word. It’s a harvest that will never disappoint.
As I think back to those long summer days, walking down dusty roads among fields of potatoes, carefully being cultivated into food for the body, I know that life for the believer is about planting seeds for the soul. Whether our earthly work comes to some measure of success or not doesn’t really matter in the end. The harvest will come, indeed. And we are relishing in its bounty, even now.
YOUR TURN: May I ask you to pray about these TV shows for us? I would be SO deeply grateful!! How about you? Are you waiting in a season of planting and looking for a “harvest” too?
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