Kind of a funny title, I suppose.

I’m going to pen just a few lines of thought on this Friday afternoon from my corner of world. I had planned to make the trek up to Utah this week to be a part of the 11th annual LDS Film Festival. The Lord had other plans for me. I won’t go into details, but in years past where I had felt very good about volunteering with the film festival, that’s not the case this year.

So why am I even writing? Because, just maybe, I can be the motivation to someone else who’s having a similar challenges to produce a video or film project. I’ve taken to heart the mandate of President Spencer W. Kimball when he said “They must be faithful, inspired, active Church members to give life and feeling and true perspective to a subject so worthy.”

Don’t give up! Somehow, you and I, wherever you are and wherever I end up, by remaining faithful and true to covenants and that sweet Spirit that will always lead a man (or woman) right, will in the end find ourselves standing with the Savior with beautiful fruits to bear, a few of which will be our video and film projects*.

What I am learning as time moves on is that in order to be the kind of film-making, christian saint the Lord would have me to be, I have responsibilities to my family, my church, my community, and others that will make it so that I can’t spend as much time making films as I think I should. He’s not asking me to give it up altogether. In fact, the more that I find myself drawing closer to my God, the more urgent these film projects become.  Yet for what would appear to be the very same reasons, I find myself not being able to attend the LDS Film Festival this year.

*Actually, in the end I don’t think we will have our video and media projects. I don’t know that the Lord has made any provisions for our art to be taken with us beyond the grave or to last into the millennial day.  And if so be the case, the the only thing that we take with us is the experience of having had made a film or video project, and if we’ve done it right, the experience of being led by the Holy Spirit to become more like our Lord.  Indeed, it seems to me that the Lord is not so much concerned with the end product of our artistic efforts as he is with who we are becoming as sons and daughters of God.  I may be off in this point, but the principles are nonetheless worthy of consideration.