This week marks a very special week in my life, and it’s because of what God has done in my life in the area of panic and fear.
As most of you know, my early life was crippled by fear and panic. It often hindered my daily life, and crushed my hopes and dreams for the future. But almost 10 years ago, God did an amazing work in my life, and today I am free from panic attacks and crippling fear.
Being free from fear has opened up a world of possibilities for me. The biggest was my dream to make movies. In the late 90’s, I started dabbling in media, making home movies and learning how to edit and produce short films.
Over a period of 10 years, I learned more about the production industry while working full time in my cubicle job. My passion for media grew quickly and eventually led me to resign my corporate job in 2005 to pursue my dream of owning my own production company.
Even that experience of resigning a cushy, corporate job with its steady income and benefits to chase a dream of owning my own company was quite the fear hurdle to overcome, but with the encouragement and blessing from my wife, we did it.
In the summer of 2006, my passion for movies had reached an all-time high, and I was ready to chase that dream and make a movie. At first, I was going to try and write the script myself, but it’s hard to write well. So, for my first film, I decided to find a script and just get a movie made so I can learn from the experience.
Instead of producing a faith-based movie (as I did with my short films), I decided to go the commercial route and produce a mystery thriller, whodunit film, to see if I could generate a profit for an indie film–a rarity in today’s market.
Later in 2006, while developing this movie project, I was having coffee with a friend of mine who loved the passion in me and said, “Russ, I want to fund the whole movie.” It was obvious that God was helping me chase my dreams. Immediately, we were up and running with production scheduled a few months later.
In early 2007, we spent 18 busy days shooting my first feature film, Fissure. Then, I spent that summer editing the film. Later that year, we finished up the music, sound and special effects. And, in 2008, we had our world premiere at the AFI Dallas film festival. Shortly after that, we were picked up for distribution–again, another rarity for indie films.
This summer on August 11th, we will release our feature film, Fissure. And starting June 15th, we will start posting webisodes of the movie online at Fissure.TV. In the meantime, you can watch some behind-the-scenes clips from the movie at Fissure.TV, including an interview of myself talking about the experience.
I wanted to share this story to encourage you. How many of you have had your dreams crushed by the weight of fear and panic and doubt? How many times have you stepped out and been pushed back down by fear? You see, fear has a way of crippling our dreams. That’s the tactic of the enemy. Many of our dreams have been planted in our hearts by God. And the enemy knows that by keeping us from our dreams, he is keeping us from our destiny.
Today, be encouraged that you can overcome your fear, chase dreams and pursue what God is calling you to do.
Prayer: Father, for years, I have been defeated by fear. My dreams have been buried for so long. Today, I ask you to rekindle your dreams in me. Help me see them clearly that I may begin walking them out in the strength of Christ.
