'Fishes and loaves': How the director of 'The Chosen' found faith through failure

Dallas Jenkins, creator of "The Chosen," joined BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey on "Relatable" this week to talk about his career in filmmaking, why "The Chosen" seems to resonate so deeply with people, and how he deals with all the criticism and controversy that go along with working on any faith-based project.

Dallas shared why he created "The Chosen" — the first multi-season show on the life of Jesus — and how a career failure led to an important lesson that changed his life.

"It was in 2017 that my feature film came out that completely bombed at the box office," Dallas explained. "In just a couple hours, I went from being a director with a very bright future to being a director with no future, because all these big Hollywood studios that had worked with me on this movie, when it bombed, they were like, 'All right, all our plans to do more movies with you, those are no longer in effect.' And I was devastated ... and just so confused because the things that had happened to lead up to that point had felt so God-led."

Dallas said that his wife had a feeling, "like God is placing on my heart," that he should read the story of "the feeding of the 5,000 in the Bible," and so he did. Then, at 4 o'clock the next morning while he was writing a memo about "everything that went wrong and what I need to learn from it," a message from a total stranger popped up through Facebook saying, "Remember, it's not your job to feed the 5000. It's only to provide the loaves and fish."

"In that moment, my life changed. I felt more than ever like God was present. ... I felt more cared for in that moment than ever," Dallas told Allie.

"I stopped caring about the results, for the first time," Dallas continued. "I was someone who felt responsible for results. I felt responsible for success or failure, even if it was something that was God-breathed or God-inspired. And now, for the first time, I was like, okay, I'm going to get on this plan of the five loaves and two fish that I provide need to be good and healthy so that if God chooses to multiply them, they can feed people. But if not, that's up to Him. The results aren't up to me any more. The success or failure isn't up to me. How it's used or not used is not up to me. When I present my five loaves and two fish to God and He deems them worthy, the transaction is over. And I really embraced that, and it became a superpower in many ways."

"It's funny because my dad tells me the same thing," Allie said. "Just like in any work that someone does [as] a Christian ... there are times that you feel like, 'Is this really making an impact? Am I really doing the right thing?' ... and my dad always just says, 'Fishes and loaves.'"

“God is going to multiply how He wants to multiply," she added. "The point is not the result. The point is the obedience. The point is that God is going to get glory through our obedience whether it ends in what we call failure or what we call success."

Watch the video below or find more episodes of "Relatable" with Allie Beth Stuckey here. Can't watch? Download the podcast here.

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