Author, activist and speaker Christine Caine likes to paint the picture of “the dark room.” For all of us who remember film cameras, before the age of the digital camera/smart phone cameras came to be, we had to wait a few days before seeing our printed photos. That’s because our film had to go through a liquid chemical process, in a dark room before becoming photos.

Christine likens a photo “dark room” to God placing His children in a “dark room,” before unleashing certain blessings on them. When God places us in the “dark room”, He is allowing certain situations to grow us, He is causing us to mature, He is putting his character on the inside of us, He is birthing dreams on the inside of us, and He is allowing frustrations and people to make us uncomfortable so that we can grow.

If the light hits a photo too early in the dark room, it will destroy the image. If light hits a child of God too early while they are in process, it can destroy the person and the plans God has for their lives. It is crucial to trust the slow road. It is crucial to stay in the “dark room,” and let patience have its perfect work in you (James 1:4).

I just want to take a second, and put Christine’s “dark room” analogy in the frame of Hollywood. It’s awards season in Hollywood so just follow me here… Hollywood has brought us so many amazing movies, but it is a strange town, a town where we see people that when they got out of the dark room (aka got their big breaks and became big) – or maybe they were never really in the “dark room,” some were destroyed with alcoholism, drug addiction, got taken out by sexual abuse, made the wrong friends who took advantage of them, lost all their money, etc.

It’s interesting how Hollywood sometimes works with awards. Most actors I imagine want to win an Oscar or a Golden Globe award. But, there are many A-list actors who have yet to win an Oscar. Just 3 years ago the talented Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar. It’s hard to believe because he’s so talented, and he’s an A-lister that you think he would have won an Oscar years ago.

But sometimes in Hollywood, if you win an Oscar too early in your career, you’ll most likely flop as early as you got the award and as quickly as the fame that came with it. This leaves you unable to get good roles or barely any roles going forward. Strange isn’t it?

The amazing A-listers that are great on screen, waiting years before they win their Oscar- they simply keep perfecting their craft, giving us better and better performances. They’re working toward their goal of putting out great movie content, building up their reputations as A-list actors, while the suspense of the world is hoping that they’ll win “this year.” They are building up a library of movies for the world to fall in love with. They are simply being kept in the corner, so when all 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences votes to give them an Oscar they aren’t just actors, but movie legends.

You’re being built up and strengthened while you wait, and you may not have even looked at it like this before. All those years of waiting and thinking God has forgotten about you are just you perfecting your craft, working toward your goal, growing deeper in Christ, “building up a library of movies”- haha- in the “dark room.” But before God allows the light to hit you in the “dark room,” before you “get that Oscar,” He’s building you up with various situations. So, when the light does hit you, you’ll be ready, with a legacy that glorifies Him and blesses those around you. That light won’t take you out because you will know who you are and Whose you are, and what you were put on this earth to do.

So in this new year of 2018, if you’re waiting for God to use you— as you wait for your destiny to come into fruition— trust God. Trust the dark room and thank Him for you not getting that “Oscar” just yet. You, as the “dark room” photo- aka “your Oscar” will come at the right time and in such a way that your calling and reputation will only be strengthened as time progresses after your big break in whatever form it is. You won’t be a “has been” if you wait on God to develop you.

Happy Friday!