It seems like a lifetime ago since my wife and I moved to Los Angeles so I could pursue a career as a screenplay writer. You can kinda, sorta read about it here.
I experienced a modicum of success in Hollywood, but not the kind I had hoped.
Before we moved West, my wife and I made a deal: Once my name appeared on the silver screen, we would come home.
I came close — several times.
However, be it the Writer’s Strike, egos, whathaveyou, something always impeded my ultimate success. Eventually, I had to come home to take care of family. Since I did so, without keeping my promise, there has always been that emptiness; that sense of what if…
Recently, my cohort in Cali, John “Rusty” Proctor, has taken a scene from a project he and I co-created, called Faith Ties, and turned it into a short that has been making it big. Here’s a clip.
Around the same time, my wife noticed a change in me.
“You seem happier,” she told me. “More focused.” More focused on me, I believe she meant to say.
It’s all kind of ironic since recently I’ve let go of so much. Letting go and letting God, you might say. It’s kind of ironic because Faith Ties is simply a story about “Letting go and letting God.”
The truth was that I appeared more focused because I had stopped following rainbows and looking for greener pastures.
Not that I was giving up. I’ll never give up!
But by letting go and letting God, the Almighty gave me new lenses to clearly see what I should have been seeing all along — that I was already standing on the greener side of life and I had found my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow on the day I said “I do” to my beloved wife! (He also gave me two beautiful Leprechauns to go along with my good fortune.)
All that self-awareness, however, and I still wasn’t feeling like I was really home.
Maybe that’s because I have always felt that my promise, to come home, was truly unfulfilled — until now!
Several years back, I was approached by my friend John “Rusty” Proctor to help him work out a problem.
You see, he had written a play titled Faith Ties: A Christmas Drama, and needed to get it ready for production. The problem: Every time Rusty tried to cut material from his play, he just added more pages.
Normally, I would’ve said no, but Rusty and I had become pretty close. In fact, I blogged about how we met earlier in the year.
The play was an amazing story about forgiveness, redemption and rebirth that followed the spiritual journey embarked on by a pastor’s wife after her husband, a man of unwavering faith and determination, received a vision to grow his church.
The rewrite took me some time, but I was finally done.
Excited, I emailed Rusty to let him know that I was taking a break, but I only had one more scene to go and that I should have a finished product ready by morning.
After taking a break, I hopped on my Macbook only to discover that the file that I was working on became “corrupted”.
I was devastated.
Somehow, I had to break the news to Rusty, who was patiently waiting to read the polished new script.
Thankfully, I remembered almost everyone of the changes that I made and emailed Rusty the changes a day late.
A few days after receiving the rewritten play, Rusty called me and asked to meet. Not only did he ask me thank me, but asked me to direct the stage play.
“I never directed anything before,” I told him.
“I never produced a play before,” he said.
Long story short, the play was a success, mainly because he and I were too naive to realize that we had no business directing or producing anything. Maybe that’s why, together, we took the next step.
“What do you think about turning this into a movie?” Rusty asked me as the curtains closed to applause on opening night.
“Already working on it,” I smiled.
I quickly adapted the story for the screen. Shortly after, legendary Television icon Demond Wilson came on board. Watch the video below to see what he had to say about the script.
For a while, I thought the film version of the play would never be made.
Finally, we returned to method that made the play such as success: Two dudes too naive to realize that we had no business directing or producing anything. Rusty, the creator of the story and play, now has taken on the role of Executive Producer of Faith Ties and the movie is now in pre-production!
In one of the earlier versions, I wrote this sermon on Forgiveness. Like the original play, some scenes were cut while others were added. It seems, as a writer, some of your favorite scene don’t make the cut.
It’s not an easy process. But as they say in the biz, writing is re-writing.
Today, like the Extra Reel on DVD, cut scenes can now be shared. So, here’s a cut scene from the upcoming film Faith Ties. I call it “The Thing That God Forgot”
I hope you enjoy it…
INT. BETHEL A.M.E. CHURCH – DAY
The Pastor preaches to the congregation from the pulpit.
PASTOR
In a small, secluded African community, word quickly spread of a young girl who believed she was talking daily to God.
Soon, members of the congregation stopped attending Church. Instead, they would congregate at this infant prophet’s house to hear God’s Word straight from the source.
News eventually reached the office of the Bishop. Concerned that a young minister’s congregation was no longer attending Sunday service, the Bishop scheduled an urgent visit.
Within days, the Bishop arrived to pay the girl a visit with the intent of returning the Church members to the pews. However, before heading out, he asked the young minister to hear his confession.
Finally, both the Bishop and the parson arrived in the small village and entered the young girl’s home and found her to be just like any girl her age, playing with her doll.
“Is it true, my child, that you speak directly to God?” the Bishop asked. “Yes, it is true, Your Eminence,” she humbly replied. “He arrives the same time everyday.” “How convenient.” “Oh, God is very convenient,” she glowed. “Did you talk to God today?” the Bishop asked. “Yes,” she replied. “Will you talk to God tomorrow?” “If He wills it, yes,” she again respectfully replied. “When you talk with God tomorrow, can you ask him one question for me?” “Of course Your Eminence,” she submitted. “What is the question?” “Can you ask God for the list of sins I confessed this morning. When I come back tomorrow, you can tell me what God said.”
The young girl glowed and went back to playing with her dolls.
As they returned to the rectory, the young minister thanked the Bishop for coming, but was confused how his short visit will return his congregation to return to his church.
The Bishop grinned.
“Surely, if she can’t tell me what I confessed to you earlier today, she’s not talking to God and YOU will again be able to tend to His flock as you were ordained to do.”
The next day the Bishop returned.
Instead of speaking to the girl privately, as he did the day before, he questioned the girl publicly, for all to hear.
“Did you talk with God this morning, Child?” the Bishop queried. “Yes, I did Your Eminence.” “Could God tell you my list of sins?” The girl paused and lowered her gaze to the floor. “Sorry, Your Eminence, He could not.”
The grin of the Bishop grew as the town people returned to the young priest for guidance.
“Please, Child, tell everyone listening why could God NOT recall the sins I confessed yesterday?” the Bishop probed. “Because…” “Because why?!” “He already forgot them.”
The pastor pauses, then looks out at his parishioners.
PASTOR He already forgot them! (a beat) Was this young girl truly talking to God or not? I don’t know. But I do recognize the wisdom in her final words.
God’s forgiveness is limitless! Clear! Complete! And forever! Amen.
PARISHIONERS Amen!
The CHOIR kicks into song. Pastor moves from the pulpit to his chair as the MUSIC RISES and FOCUS on the CROSS.
The moment after you faithfully say these three simple words: “I am sorry,” God forgets your sins — every single one of them.
That’s the thing that God forgets.
“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”
My wife and I had just moved to Burbank, California. I was trying to make it as a screenwriter — and she was in search of a Base Shop. Search over, we dressed for success and drove to Sherman Oaks and to her potential new upline.
I have to admit, I was far from a willing participant. The role I was playing was that of the supportive husband. You see, my wife had given up everything, so I could follow my dream.
Her family. Her friends. Her comfort.
The least I could do is sit through a Wednesday night presentation. Right?
To my surprise, the reception was warm and welcoming. The presenters were unassuming. I later discovered these warm, welcoming, unassuming presenters were the base shop RVPs, Mark and Sue Younger. Oh yeah, they were also multimillionaires … kind, sharing and unassuming multimillionaires.
Over time, we felt more than just members of the Younger Base Shop. We felt like part of the Younger family.
To date, I have never met two people as inspirational as Mark and Sue Younger. Their stories were entertaining, influential — and endless.
I’ll never forget the night I first heard what I call “The Plan.” The best word to describe the feeling: Awestruck.
The presentation that I was watching was not just about their patented business plan for success. It was also my plan … “The Plan” — straight from the pages of my book, Corporation YOU: Business Plan for the Soul.
Impossible, I thought.
I quickly nudged my wife, leaned towards her, and whispered, “That’s my plan!”
She simply smiled and then quietly replied, “I know.” (She was always so much smarter and wiser than I.) And even though she had read my book in draft form — years before she was in the business, my wife never said a word. (She is also much more humble, and so much less forthright, as well.)
Eventually, our new network started to grow — and I continued attending meetings, as often as possible.
One Saturday, I became bold enough to introduce myself to a Primerican after discovering that he shared my career goals.
Eventually, we became writing partners. Today, I consider this gentle man as a confidant, a brother and one of my closest friends.
Together, he and I started to apply these time-tested principles outside of Primerica and eventually, against all odds, respectively produced and directed a faith-based play: Faith Ties. Next, we put the plan in place to turn that play into a motion picture.
We still have a much work to do, but we don’t only have the faith that we will succeed. We have the principles to succeed!
Now, I know what you’re thinking: This can’t work for me. Well, I’m telling you that it will — if you don’t forget the bacon!
Like many, my life was one of unfulfilled dreams. In search of life’s true meaning, life became meaningless. That all ended the day I meet a charismatic salesperson by the name of Mel.
Mr. Mel, as I called him, quickly began to transform my life through a series of personal lessons. However, it was not until his last lesson — what it meant to “Don’t Forget the Bacon” — that I was given “The Plan” and with it: Life’s key meaning.
It was then, and only then, I finally understood God’s true plan for my life.
As in everything, there are peaks and valleys. But today, the peaks have never been so high. And thankfully, the valleys are never as low as they were before I learned the lesson for successful living from the Master Teacher, Mr. Mel.
As you read this inspirational narrative, you will find yourself slowly climbing the ladder of personal success and happiness. When you reach the top of the ladder, you will be spellbound as you look beyond and discover a world within—a world of higher purpose, a world of action, a world “beyond self.”
Welcome, my friend, to Corporation You — and don’t forget the bacon!
Remember Sanford and Son? Of course you do. Well, I’ve done allot of things that I’m proud of, but when I watched this television icon describe a Faith-based Christmas story, Faith Ties, that I co-wrote with my buddy John Proctor, with such passion on TBN’s PRAISE THE LORD with host Clifton Davis, I was at a loss for words.
WATCH THIS:
Amazing, right?
Then, help us get this pix on the silver screen. LIKE US on Facebook, then take the poll below.
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Would you contribute to a crownfunding campaign to help raise money to make this film?
‘Twas, Hail Mary series, and two children’s books: The Second Prince and Klaus: The Gift-giver to ALL! To contact James or book an interview, please contact Mark of Goldman/McCormick PR at (516) 639-0988 or Mark@goldmanmccormick.com.
Corporation YOU 