Stories
September 15, 2020
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Here at Project Light we’re all about creating spaces for stories to be shared. We’ve had the honor of hearing hundreds of stories from you all over the years and we hold them all in hearts. Over the next few days we want to share our story with you - where we’ve come from and where we’re going - in anticipation of our newest film: The 4th Man.
Beginning with Speaking to Sparrows
Broken bits of Belovedness were brought to us over and over again and, like a broken record player, the needle stuck on the same refrain: “I am not enough.”
These shared stories from women of all ages became the fuel that ignited a Holy Flame in us to find the courage to step out in faith and co-create a film with the Divine Director. Speaking to Sparrows has encouraged thousands of women to find the courage to confront the uncomfortable, to pick up the shredded pieces of their souls and allow healing light to shine in the darkest corners of their spirit.
Our intention for Speaking to Sparrows was to keep it to ourselves. Use it only with the girls in our little postage stamp of the world. Oh what little did we know was coming! If we did, I wonder if we would’ve had the courage to step out and say “yes”?
God is good that way, isn’t He? Only revealing to us one bread crumb at a time, allowing us to digest and pick up the next one when we’re ready.
This mission has often felt like drinking from a fire hydrant. Stretching and growing us and calling us deeper still. His debut as Divine Director was just getting started. We realized this was greater than just one film. Dare we be bold enough to say perhaps even the beginning of a revolution? Maybe, better yet, restoration? Whatever “it” was, a ministry was being born. And with each new birth comes a name. Ours goes by Project LIGHT (Letting In Gods Healing Truth) Ministries.
Having a rare glimpse into the inner workings of boyhood has granted us the privilege to see men’s fractured fragments of Belovedness, which is often, but not always, disguised as bravado.
We all need healing. What good is it to shine healing light on one but not the other?
“But if we walk in the light, as he he is in the light, we will have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7
Fellowship in the light.
Built with hope, ready for healing
The Healer wants to bring wholeness to His image bearers - male and female.
Complementary to one another in broken bits of bricks fitted together in unison to rebuild the foundation of our identities. Women, and almost more importantly men, must do the work needed to know and believe - why they were created, who created them, and what their purpose is. Each bears different wounds but has the same worth. All of our names are inscribed on the Father’s hands.
Building towards The 4th Man
We first announced The 4th Man three years ago, asking for your prayers as we began filming. It's finally here but first, what is the film about?
The 4th Man is a documentary film that shatters the myths of manhood. It boldly shines light into the dark lies of distortion convincing men their worth no longer matters. The desire for the film was born with the realization that we’ve spent a long time allowing the culture to dictate what manhood and masculinity is. The truth is we’ve allowed them to do that because we’ve not given a real good alternative.
What if there was a better answer?
We believe there is.
From the book of Daniel 3:13-15...
[King] Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods and you do not worship the golden statue that I have set up? Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble to fall down and worship the statue that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire, and who is the god that will deliver you out of my hands?”
Did you get that?
Noise and fear. They kinda go hand and hand. How often has the noise of the world caused you to make fear based choices? What would it take for you to neglect the noise and allow the strength of silence to determine your actions?
Let's read further from Daniel 3:16-20...
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us.[b] But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.” Then Nebuchadnezzar was so filled with rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face was distorted. He ordered the furnace heated up seven times more than was customary, and ordered some of the strongest guards in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire.
You wonder what would have happened if it’d only been one of them. Would they have had the courage to denounce these false gods in the first place had they not been together?
There is strength in numbers. Building healthy holy brotherhood matters.
We read from the following verses in Daniel 3:21-23...
So the men were bound, still wearing their tunics, their trousers, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the furnace of blazing fire. Because the king’s command was urgent and the furnace was so overheated, the raging flames killed the men who lifted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But the three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down, bound, into the furnace of blazing fire.
The refining fire can come at anytime. When life comes knocking at your door asking you to lay it all down, will you be ready?
This is SO good! We have to keep going. From Daniel 3:24-26
They walked around in the midst of the flames, singing hymns to God and blessing the Lord. Then Azariah stood still in the fire and prayed aloud: “Blessed are you, O Lord, God of our ancestors, and worthy of praise; and glorious is your name forever!”
Praise, amidst the purification and suffering of the fire, seems an almost impossible task. Yet, that is what we are called to live out.
To give God glory in all situations. What Saints do you call upon as examples to lead you in praise when you find yourself in the midst of the fire?
Once again, from Daniel 3:46-51
Now the king’s servants who threw them in kept stoking the furnace with naphtha, pitch, tow, and brushwood. And the flames poured out above the furnace forty-nine cubits, and spread out and burned those Chaldeans who were caught near the furnace. But the angel of the Lord came down into the furnace to be with Azariah and his companions, and drove the fiery flame out of the furnace, and made the inside of the furnace as though a moist wind were whistling through it. The fire did not touch them at all and caused them no pain or distress. Then the three with one voice praised and glorified and blessed God in the furnace.
In our darkest times, we often feel alone and abandoned. It's easy to fall prey to self reliance or self pity.
The Lord sent the men an angel to withstand their trial with them. It was the humility of the three men that allowed them to see the angel and accept help. Often times, we have been sent "an angel or a Simon of Cyrene" but how many times has our pride been a barrier and we find ourselves stuck in the flames?
The last verse we wanted to share was from Daniel 3:91-92
Hearing them sing, and amazed at seeing them alive, King Nebuchadnezzar rose up quickly. He said to his counselors, “Was it not three men that we threw bound into the fire?” They answered the king, “True, O king.” He replied, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of god.”
Not only is Jesus abiding within us and standing alongside us as we go through sufferings whether they be physical, mental or emotional, but he’s also unbinding us through it. The 3 men could not have walked out of the fire had Jesus not unbound them in it.
Made to shine light in the darkness
Speaking To Sparrows was created to give women the space to find hope and healing. How could we not do the same for men? They deserve that same sacred space and illumination.
The 4th Man was created to shatter the myths of manhood. To shine light into the dark lies of distortion convincing them their worth no longer matters.
