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by Bethany Beebe

Have you ever thought you knew the will of God for your life? I mean, you knew that you knew what God wanted you to do only to find out that you kindda took what God wanted for your life and twisted it to fit what you wanted. Well it happened to me. I didn’t do it on purpose. It was honestly what I thought God wanted for me base on the fact that it is what would make me happy.

See when I was 17 I went on my first mission’s trip. Just to go was a miracle, so I knew that I was in the will of God. Then I got there, it was wonderful. Well I did go to Australia so how could it not. I know for my first trip out I picked a real good one. I could have gone to places that feed you bugs or made you save your toilet paper, but no. instead I choice a place like Australia.

Despite the airport loosing my luggage the whole thing was a wonderful experience. And once I got back state side I knew that was what my calling was. It was to be a missionary. There could be no better calling on my life. Not to mention the many words I got saying that I was going to travel. That was the one word spoken over me more then anything else, “travel, travel, travel.” Not to mention being a missionary had all the things I wanted to do wrapped up in on job. Those things were: to serve God, travel, and to live a life full of adventure. So there you have it, unmistakable proof that was my calling.

I felt it so much that after I graduated from high school I found a college that majored in missions. I started there and well something felt wrong. I couldn’t explain what it was but something wasn’t right. It wasn’t that I wasn’t enjoying college. On the contrary I loved it. I had a bunch of new friends and my classes were great but there was something stopping me from declaring my major.

You would think that would have been the first thing I would have done when I got there. But I didn’t. then when I was in a meeting for freshmen who have yet to declare a major I discovered Gods true calling.
I was talking with some friends when a paper was handed to me, I asked what it was and they said it was a sheet of all the majors on it. “Oh, well…” I thought. “I don’t need this, I know exactly what I was going to be.” But I looked at it anyway. My eye traveled over the paper pulling out different majors that it saw. I only made it to the C’s when they stopped.

“Communications? What is that?” I asked my friend.

Leaning over my shoulder he looked at the paper in my hand like he needed to read what I said before he could answer me. “Oh, that,” he said. “Well, it’s where they show you how to make movies and stuff.”
His words echoed in my brain, bouncing off one wall to another until I was totally submersed in what he said. Slowly my mouth repeated his words, “where they show you how to make movie? They can do that?” For some reason I always assumed that movie making was born into people. It was just what they did, that they didn’t have to go to school for it.

As I pondered this, my spirit started to get excited. Something started to wake inside me. Something that I never felt before. It was like I felt for the first time that I was a all there. One complete person. That this was my true calling.

But wait, what about all the prophetic words I got about travel, what about the great calling to be a missionary. Well that sent me and my spirit crashing back to the classroom. Right. I almost forgot about what God had called me too. I left the meeting still undecided. I was lost, I didn’t know what to do. On one hand I had this calling, on the other there was this new major that made me feel like that was not just a calling but my destiny. It was who I really was.

I went to my dorm room and prayed for a long time. in that time God showed me many things. First that my heart was all wrong for being a missionary. He let me see that I wanted to travel, to serve Him, and to have adventures, but were was my love for those people I was going to save. I loved them yes, but they weren’t even on my list of things that made me want to be a missionary.

But what about the prophetic words? Well God showed me that they were about travel, not being a missionary. In the film industry you travel a lot. When God gives a prophetic word, He means exactly what He says, not the way you interpret what He says. If I saw the word travel, it would be easy for me to interpret it to mean the most obvious reason for travel, which would be missionary work. I was not even aware that if I worked in the movie industry, travel would become part of my life. This would be location scouting, filming on location and other reasons for travel. God knows what you would enjoy the most and His plans for you are always in that direction. But because our understanding is so limited on what options are available, it is wise to not come to any conclusions but accept God’s word exactly as He said it.

Bethany Beebe has worked with Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks in set production and prop-making.
She currently is working with Final Cut Pro, editing a DVD series.