We did that. We felt that. We survived.
As I sit here and catch up on this blog and remember everything I was thinking during those shoot days, I remember feeling very relieved on June 24. We were back to work shooting "Sacred" and this time at a brand new location. Everyone was exhausted and running on homemade muffins and adrenaline, and a little wary of the rain clouds (we had a lot to shoot outside that day), but we were so excited to be back together again. And we were relieved that our "days off" were over! Some of our actors were shooting dialogue scenes for the first time, and everyone was eager to do something new and different. Mostly, though, we just wanted to be in each others' presence.
During our time off, between shoot days, I enjoyed and related to comments like these made on Facebook and Twitter...
I'm so excited and ready to be back on set of Sacred tomorrow! Missing my #SacredFamily
Too many days off in a row... Must-get-back-on-set!! #SacredRSFilm
I felt that way, too.
I'm going through Sacred withdrawal today...can't wait to see you guys again! Resting has been wonderful, but seriously....can't we just rest together? #SacredRSFilm
For a director, the interaction is affirming. It is so much fun to watch my actors embrace the process, embrace the Message and goal of our project, and embrace each other. Everyone had a common purpose and everyone wanted to be doing it together. All the time. What a rewarding thing it is for a director to observe. Now, though, it's difficult setting all of that aside to get back into every-day life. It's been a "camp" or a mountain-top experience, to say the least, and what do we do with ourselves after it's done?
The wonder of it all is that ministry is never done. I encouraged some of my actors to remember this simple truth: even though you may be apart from these people, and you may never work together in the same way, or you may never see some of these people again, you are forever connected now because of the Spirit and what He's doing in this ministry. Eternity is a forever kind of deal.
Serving God together is a powerful thing. It connects people's hearts in the deepest way, and when the process takes you into a selfless place where your love for Jesus and what He's done for you is the fuel and driving force, you never want to leave it behind.
And yet, Jesus spoke about this. He spoke to the heartache we experience now, the kind of heartache that comes with coming to the end of something good. In the Gospel book of Matthew, Jesus had just been resurrected from the dead, and was speaking to His followers before His ascension into heaven. He said, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19 to 20a) I can imagine that the disciples, in that moment, were living the greatest, truest "mountain-top experience" ever. Here was their Lord, their teacher, their Savior risen from the dead! And they couldn't wait to see what God wanted to do next! And now, they knew what He wanted them to do next. They knew it wasn't over. But...
Jesus was going to leave them to do it on the face of the earth by themselves.
Oh, not really by themselves. He promised to send the Counselor, the great Comforter, the Holy Spirit to dwell among them and to be with them until He, in body, returned at the end of all things. But His face was leaving them for quite awhile, and I can only imagine the feeling of "coming to the end of something good."
The "Sacred" cast and crew, and myself, will always remember moments and comments and joys and conversations we experienced in the making of the film. The disciples, I'm sure, days after Jesus' ascension into heaven remembered stories and healings and questions and love and love and love, and wished they could go back to those moments they lived with Jesus face-to-face. Who wouldn't? And yet, they were not left ill equipped. The job wasn't over. The mission had begun. Jesus left them with something even better than what was temporarily good. He left them with a promise, and that promise looks like this even for us today:
Jesus said, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:20b)
Those three significant, life-changing years of ministry with Jesus were over. Years and lives of ministry with the Holy Spirit were ahead of them. They'd been given a charge, and a promise of forever-companionship and guidance. And one of the greatest gifts Jesus could ever give them: the charge to do it together.
Ministry is a very intimate thing. I praise Him that this intimate thing is never over.
He is never over.
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