Faith Filled Family Magazine October 2016 | Page 79

into what He had given me the
desire to do.

God. Going into the entertainment industry and being an actor is definitely… Well, you could
Since I was in the seventh or say, self-motivating because it’s
eighth grade, I dreamed about all about you. But for me, it was
going into the entertainment in- about telling stories. I love telldustry. So I called my parents, ing stories, and I love that asand said, “Dad…Mom, I want to pect. I had this desire to perform
leave Bible school. I want to go and didn’t know where that came
to Hollywood to be an actor”.
from because it wasn’t garnered
in me. It wasn’t like I was a huge
Then there was this long silence performer or a comedian in high
on the phone.
school. So it was like there was
something inside of me that was
My dad was a Mennonite pas- calling me, but it wasn’t showing
tor, and had discouraged me itself out in the normal public.
from ever going to the movies. So, even more so, I knew that it
I had only seen one movie dur- was from the Lord.
ing the first eighteen years of my
life. It was not something that he In the book, it talks about differwould encourage. But instead of ent things like, “How do you know
discouraging me, or tearing me something is from the Lord”, or
down, he said, “David, as long “How do you know something is
as you serve the Lord in what- true”. So often as kids, we have
ever you do, we will support you. a big dream, and what happens
as we become adults is that the
Later I found out that my parents dreams become chopped down
were riddled with fear for me to into manageable smaller propormove out to Hollywood at nine- tions. Why? Either our parents
teen by myself. It was an un- are telling us this because they
comfortable thing for them, yet don’t want us to be disappointed,
they embraced it because they or we’re telling ourselves that I
felt like I was following the Lord. don’t want to be disappointed.
They just encouraged me to Sometimes we even are afraid,
continue doing it, and that God or have some doubts.
would work it out.
I outline that in the book about
Some people, when they hear the different ways that you can
of what God has called a per- know if something is truly from
son to do, will respond nega- God, or if it’s motivated by self.
tively. They are well-meaning,
but their words are not af- You say in your book, “Dreams
firming. How does someone are like exit signs prompting
combat thoughts that maybe you to get off the road to nothey aren’t where they should where”. Can you expand on
be, and doubts about hearing that statement?
from the Lord regarding their Well, sometimes “somewhere”
calling?
is in our minds. Often times, we
The book kind of discussed the have this fear stopping us from
topic of how do you know if the having an accident when we
dream is self-motivating or from want something to go right.

Everything in the world is telling
us to go left, but we want to go
right. It’s a matter of whether we
are chasing that dream. Dreams
are a straight line, and oftentimes we think, “Well, if I’m going
to have a dream, I’ll chose this”
and it’s a nice, easy dream up
the interstate. However, more
often, it’s a tangled ball of twine!
Then we put our foot down, and
stomp on it.
Life is not easy, and dreams are
not easy. I think the more we
can embrace the toughness of
life instead of getting down on
them, and flipping it to positive
experiences, it will go further.
What do you say to say to
someone who doesn’t know
what their purpose is?
I would say first and foremost,
you should definitely read my
book because I think that hopefully it would lend some insight,
knowledge and understanding
into the issue of what is inside of
you, and what you want to do.
Some people need some soul
searching time. They need time
to figure it out. Sometimes we
force our kids at twelve, seventeen or eighteen to know exactly
what they should be doing, and
oftentimes we don’t. I think that
it’s okay. The number one thing
should be to stay in the Word of
God than on your own, and to
pursue God first and foremost.
It will unveil itself. You will learn
why you were created. I truly
believe that each and every one
of us are called here to have a
dream, a goal, or a specific reason for living. Romans 12 talks
about different measures of gifts