ten forty

September 27, 2010 ten forty

More than a tax form, this project has become a part of my daily life for the past seven months. Just like an obese woman that’s remained on a couch for so long that fabric and flesh ooze together, I feel like I eat, sleep, and breathe this movie.

Its been tough. If this project was a person, I would have probably thrown a bar stool at it. Or at least a drink in the face. A project of this nature is, uh by its very nature, all-consuming. There is really no way around it. When you have this heady mixture of business, entertainment, media, and ministry, its just a recipe for a night you barely remember and a rough morning… except the analogy extends for seven months and counting. (Knocked Up, maybe?)

What am I doing? In very official terms, I’m part of the team that’s handling all the marketing, development, and distribution for 1040, a documentary about the movement of faith in Asia. I’m part of a team that’s very stressed, bewildered, physically and mentally exhausted, working way too long and for far less than what the world thinks is fair. The task at hand is not a cakewalk either.

We are screening 1040 movie at all major universities across North America. In two months. Yeah. North America, yo.

In a very worldly “commonsensical” way, it can be done. Just a little elbow grease and some shots of espresso. I mean, we all went to college, we kind of bright, oh and we’re young, so we’ll grind it out. In all respects, it could be okay! I mean, we’ve pulled off a Spring tour– oh yeah and that liiiiittle Asia tour to just Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, and Indonesia.

No.

Honestly, I feel like we’re at the base of a ridiculously tall mountain, covered in thorns and huge chasms, large boulders are being rolled down from the top, with an avalanche behind it, and okay, its on fire too. I’m not trying to be pessimistic or hopeless– I’m actually just being real. When you watch months of work crumble before you because of some nonsense you can’t control, or when you watch a teammate buckle inwards and cry helplessly because he felt so helpless and so lost, and when you break and bleed inside because you feel exactly the same way– oh man, that a very large cup of reality. When you watch the sunrise as you pull an all-nighter at the office and you feel that sinful twinge of knowing you’ll never be recognized for it. Oh man– you gotta drink it. Ha! The list goes on.

I’m not writing this to bemoan my job or sound super spiritual (because I like that whole complaining and then redeeming verse or encouraging one-liner format thang. I know. I see my annoying writing habits. The mang and yo thing too, yeah?).

The work is tough, challenging, but we knew what we were getting into. We knew that this movie and this tour would be more than a test and display of our abilities. It would even be more than a beautiful tool to stretch our capacity. It would be about His glory, about His spirit moving and reviving dead hearts, about revivals breaking through apathetic and complacent lifestyles to give us the freedom to live as we were CREATED to be; in freedom to transform lives and make disciples of all nations, to bring His kingdom into this world.

The internal struggles that we have within our team and those ridiculous external hardships that we inevitably hit, the weariness, the pain– all of that is countered by the light I see that goes off in the eyes of people that attend, by the lives I see will never be the same again. I’m part of this amazing story that’s unfolding right in front of me. and I am damn privileged to be here and even more flipping privileged to be a part of this team.

We just wrapped the fourth date for the Fall Tour (FT). I remember first thinking, as I shakily walked out of the room at the UC Berkeley screening, clinging onto the wall moulding for support: what the hell happened? And then: damn. we need to record this.

http://www.1040movie.com

Stay tuned. Please partner with me in prayer. I can’t run this race alone.

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Tags: 1040 movie, fall tour, refashioned, the team, what were we created to do?

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