On Tuesday, October 29th, BYU invited Dallas Jenkins, creator and director of The Chosen, to speak at the weekly forum. The Chosen is a popular series that explores the life of Jesus Christ from the perspective of those who followed him.
In his message, Jenkins outlined the path that led him to where he is today, beginning with the early successes in his career that led to what he thought was the pinnacle. However, after some successful movie releases, one of them flopped. This failure evaporated his future prospects and left him wondering where he would go, as all the funding and studios backing him withdrew their support.
Initially, Jenkins didn’t understand why God had led him to fail, stating, “God’s not the author of failure, and I failed.” He had felt so confident that he was doing what God had wanted, but now, doubt overshadowed his previous accomplishments.
At this low point in his career, he received a timely message from a friend: “Remember, it’s not your job to feed the 5,000; it’s only to provide the loaves and fish.”
“That moment changed my life,” Jenkins recalled. He spoke about how, from that moment, he put aside all his ambitions and desires and gave up everything for God.
Eventually, he filmed a short movie about the birth of Christ. While filming, he had the idea to make a series about the Lord, but he had no way of doing so. Shortly after, his friend contacted Angel Studios, and they agreed to help bring his idea to life. Angel Studios put his original short film on their website and started to crowdfund The Chosen. Eventually, they broke all the records for crowd-funded products.
Since then, The Chosen has found international success, and it can be viewed worldwide. On this success, Jenkins stated, “You bring what you have, give it to God, and you let it go.”
Jenkins concluded his message by pleading with the audience not to wait years to learn the lesson of giving all things up to God. He repeated the initial message that changed his life: “It is not your job to feed the five thousand; it is only to provide the loaves and fish.”
Written by: Adam Blake
Senior Contributor at the Cougar Chronicle
The Cougar Chronicle is an independent student-run newspaper and is not affiliated with Brigham Young University or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Cover Photo Source: https://www.crosswalk.com/headlines/contributors/michael-foust/the-chosen-director-dallas-jenkins-shares-vision-of-new-series-about-book-of-acts.html
