Chapter Ten
The Secret Of Resilience: Can Gratitude Defeat Despair?
For the next several chapters I’m going to tell you some stories from my long experience in Hollywood as a writer and producer in network television. I’m going to do it for two reasons. First, to show you how God guides and cares for us in this great war. Second, I want to show you the deeper nature of the conflict and it is this: To a vast degree, the war against humanity by the powers of Darkness is a war of stories. Years ago, I wrote an essay entitled “Stories rule the world. When hell rules the world’s stories…Hell rules.” You can read that essay on this website through the above link. Control the stories that are believed by an individual, a nation and the world and you control everything, especially what people worship. Sadly, in America, for many generations, our stories have taught us to worship ourselves. We are the focus of everything. For many decades, Hollywood has been a world center for that kind of storytelling.
As you recall in the last chapter, 1979 was a very difficult year for us, but through it we saw God’s mighty Hand of provision. During 1979, I co-wrote a feature film script with a great friend of mine, Mick Curran. It was entitled, The Foxbat Strategy and it’s available to read on this website. Two young producers picked it up and took it to United Artists. In 1980 it was bought by that studio and almost immediately became a go-project. How exciting that was. Finally, I was in the game, a member of the Writers Guild. We began talking to possible directors. I met with one production company head who asked why I didn’t direct the film myself? I replied, “Well, I’ve never actually been on a working film set. Probably, I need to do that first.”
But in the middle of all this excitement, something happened. United Artists was bought by MGM. The president of that studio had a sister who had a script with a one-line similarity to ours. Instantly, Foxbat was permanently shelved never to be produced. In a heartbeat, all the excitement was gone. But that’s just Hollywood. I don’t count it as part of the deeper war.
For several years, The Foxbat Strategy made the rounds of the studios being read as part of a small group of scripts that should have been produced but weren’t. This opened doors for me as a writer. I met with the presidents of studios and production companies. I pitched script ideas to them and I was hired to write them. None were ever produced, but I made enough to feed my family. Then, in 1983, the bottom fell out. Suddenly, I couldn’t sell an idea. Once again, we couldn’t pay our bills. I was an elder in a small local church. People would come to our house for meetings. We met with them by candlelight because our electricity had been shut off. Truly embarrassing. We had no telephone. I would call my agent once each day from a laundromat.
One afternoon, we got our kids together and told them that we didn’t have any food for dinner. So, we said, let’s see what God, our Father, will do. We had no reason to expect anything. Just before dinner, we got a call from a church youth group. They had planned an evening at a home with a large swimming pool, but suddenly that home was no longer available. We had a very small home, but a large pool in the backyard. The youth group asked if they could meet at our house. They would bring dinner. We had a huge meal of hamburgers and hotdogs with leftovers for several days.
Our struggle continued deep into 1984. Then came the great transition. A good friend of mine, Rod Taylor, sold a television series to CBS through Universal. I had never thought of writing for TV. I knew nothing about it, but Rod asked me to write a script for his series, Otherworld. It was about a family, a father, mother and three kids who had fallen through a strange portal and were lost in a different dimension. There they were pursued by an evil leader and his forces. In each episode they would escape from one strange place to another. The series had been picked up for 8 episodes. My friend Rod, the studio and the network loved the script I wrote and I was asked to join the writing staff. From not being able to pay my bills, suddenly I had an office on the Universal lot. That’s Hollywood.
I didn’t realize it, but I had entered the story wars of my professional life. From the start, the woman in charge of Otherworld at CBS was a problem. It was clear that she didn’t like much of what we were writing. Then I wrote a script that was like throwing gasoline on her fire. Of course, I didn’t know that. In the story, the family enters a strange supernatural house. Each member is trapped alone in a room that manipulates their deepest fears driving them to destruction. The father must overcome his fear, then go into each room taking the fears of his loved ones onto himself to save them. The script went to the executives at Universal and they loved it, telling us it was one of the best that we had written. Then it went to CBS. The woman in charge absolutely hated it. She hated the idea of a father who would give himself to save his family, and she wouldn’t let it be produced. Instantly, it was gone.
Saddest of all, she made sure that Otherworld was not picked up after 8 episodes. A series that should have continued for years vanished. Otherworld could be done again right now I’m sure with great success. If you want to watch that old series we have it on a playlist on our Thorncrown Studios YouTube Channel. But what had happened in that poor woman’s life that would make her respond the way she did? After many years, I know this. The Powers of Darkness and evil prepare people for leadership by damaging them from childhood on. They build into them hellish stories that control and empower all of their decisions, actions and relationships. It is a form of enslavement and those damaged leaders who become so destructive are everywhere especially at the highest levels of society where they control others through greed, selfishness, anger and fear.
As sad as the experience was, Otherworld opened amazing doors for me. I got to know the executives at Universal Television and really liked them. The feeling must have been mutual because they gave me an overall deal. Which meant I stayed exclusive to Universal Television after Otherworld was over. And the fall of 1985 brought an incredible opportunity. A senior vice president at UTV named Richard Lindheim was the co-creator of a new series and half-way through its first season he asked me to join the staff. And so began the greatest experience of my writing career as a writer/producer for The Equalizer. I’ll tell you more about that in the next chapter.
Over the years, I have learned so much about the way Jesus guides his servant warriors. The lessons of physical warfare do apply. Before a soldier enters a combat zone, he or she goes through long periods of training. This can be so miserable that you feel like you are in warfare, but you are not. As an infantry soldier, when you join a combat unit in a war zone you find yourself in one of the most boring jobs in the world. You go through long periods where all you do is slog through filth and vileness. There are no enemy attacks. It’s just you, weighed down, miserable, lonely, and afraid for days on end. Then, suddenly, shrieking chaos and death that could be over in minutes or last for days.
Jesus does not place us in an enemy stronghold until we are ready. I’m afraid that so much of what we consider enemy attacks we bring on ourselves. We do things that invite the enemy in. Then, as we suffer for our own sin and stupidity, we try to glorify it by calling it spiritual warfare. No, it’s just reaping the stinking harvest that we have planted. But God is so merciful. He takes us through all of that and, in the process, teaches us things we will need to know in the real battle that is coming. Most of all, we learn how weak we truly are. Pride and self sufficiency vanish. In confronting our own idiocy, we learn how much we must depend on Jesus, our King. Only when we understand how pitiful and stupid we are will we be ready to face the god of this world and his forces. When we are humbled to the place where we confront the depths of our weakness and ignorance, out of it comes our greatest weapon…gratitude.
But how can you be grateful when the situation is terrible, when you are in pain, when you face rejection and loss? How can you thank God in the middle of all that? In early 1985, when Otherworld was falling apart and my hope for a new future was vanishing with it, how could I be grateful? It felt like yet again, everything I touched was turning to trash. How could I be grateful for that? I will tell you how. Through all the preceding years of preparation I had learned that God, my loving father, was faithful, and that no matter what happened, no matter how I failed, He would never let me go. Truly that brings overwhelming gratitude. From Otherworld on, everything was a battle. And the worst was yet to come. That battle continues to this day, but, praise God, He has never left me.
So arm yourself with gratitude. In the middle of darkness when all hope seems lost, gratitude will be a powerful act of faith that transforms everything. Through gratitude, the destroyers of your life, anger, hate and self-pity will themselves be destroyed. And when you search for it, you will discover that in the darkest moments there is always something good for which you can be thankful. Through gratitude, you will find the peace of Jesus Christ who said, in John 14:27-28: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
The power of gratitude, thanking God for His love and care in the worst of moments makes possible what the Apostle Paul wrote about in 1 Thess 5:15-19 “See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
When gratitude is in control, you are given the ability to see people in ways you never could without it. Even people who have done terrible things to you. Into your heart comes the compassion of Jesus Himself. You are able to pray for them and forgive them to a depth that was not possible before. And with gratitude comes patience.
I must tell you that I am still learning these lessons after all the years. I am not by nature a grateful person, a patient person or a forgiving person. In fact, by nature I am the opposite. But God has been so patient and loving toward me. Over the years I have begun to learn what the Apostle James wrote in James 1:2-4 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Gratitude and steadfastness, my friend, this is the way of the servant warrior.
Where are you right now? Are you in the middle of great darkness? Does there seem to be no end to it? Has everything crumbled to dust around you? There is no better time to give thanks. So whatever your situation may be that is your assignment for the week ahead. Lay it all out before your Father in Heaven who loves you. Don’t hold back your pain, your disappointment and your anger. Go ahead, spew it to Him. Then give thanks. Why? Because if you could see your future in Jesus you would say with the Apostle Paul in 2 Cor 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
That’s it, servant warrior, go forward into the battle of your life, steadfast, wielding the weapon of gratitude, because the King has counted you worthy. Waiting for you at the end of your life’s faithful battle is glory beyond anything you could imagine.
I’m going to leave you with the words to an old song that I’m afraid isn’t sung anymore. They go like this:
“When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed, when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
Are you ever burdened with a load of care? Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly, and you will keep singing as the days go by.
When you look at others with their lands and gold, think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold;
Count your many blessings that money cannot buy, your reward in heaven, and your home on high.“
So, amid the conflict whether great or small, do not be discouraged, God is over all;
Count your many blessings, angels will attend, help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.
Bible Study and Small Group Discussion Questions
- Why is gratitude described as a weapon in spiritual warfare?
Passage: I Thessalonians 5:16–18, “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks…”
From the chapter: “Gratitude will be a powerful act of faith that transforms everything… anger, hate and self‑pity will themselves be destroyed.”
Question: Where do you see gratitude weakening the power of fear, anger, or self‑pity in your life? - How does God use long seasons of struggle to prepare His servant warriors?
Passage: James 1:2–4, “The testing of your faith produces steadfastness…”
From the chapter: “Jesus does not place us in an enemy stronghold until we are ready… Pride and self‑sufficiency vanish.”
Question: What difficult season has God used to strip away self‑reliance and build steadfastness in you? - What does this chapter reveal about the danger of misinterpreting our own failures as ‘spiritual attacks’?
Passage: Galatians 6:7, “Whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”
From the chapter: “So much of what we consider enemy attacks we bring on ourselves… it’s just reaping the stinking harvest that we have planted.”
Question: Where might you be calling something “spiritual warfare” when it is actually the consequence of your own choices? - How does remembering God’s past faithfulness fuel present gratitude?
Passage: Psalm 77:11–12, “I will remember the deeds of the LORD…”
From the chapter: “Through all the preceding years of preparation I had learned that God… was faithful, and… would never let me go.”
Question: What past moment of God’s faithfulness do you need to bring back to mind today? - Why is gratitude possible even when everything seems to be falling apart?
Passage: II Corinthians 4:16–18, “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory…”
From the chapter: “In the middle of darkness when all hope seems lost… there is always something good for which you can be thankful.”
Question: What is one small but real blessing you can thank God for in your present hardship? - How does gratitude reshape the way we see people who have wounded us?
Passage: Matthew 5:44, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
From the chapter: “When gratitude is in control… you are able to pray for them and forgive them to a depth that was not possible before.”
Question: Who is one person you need God’s help to see with the compassion of Jesus? - What does Coleman teach about the hidden story‑war behind leadership and culture?
Passage: Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed…”
From the chapter: “The war against humanity… is a war of stories… Control the stories… and you control everything.”
Question: What stories, cultural, personal, or spiritual, most shape the way you see yourself and the world? - How does God use humiliation and loss to destroy pride?
Passage: I Peter 5:6, “Humble yourselves… that He may exalt you at the proper time.”
From the chapter: “Only when we understand how pitiful and stupid we are will we be ready to face the god of this world.”
Question: What recent humbling experience might God be using to prepare you for a deeper battle? - Why is gratitude essential for entering the “real battle” rather than staying in the safe zone?
Passage: Joshua 1:9, “Be strong and courageous… for the LORD your God is with you.”
From the chapter: “From Otherworld on, everything was a battle… but, praise God, He has never left me.”
Question: Where is God calling you to step out of comfort and into courageous obedience? - How does gratitude anchor us when life feels like unending darkness?
Passage: John 14:27, “My peace I give to you… Do not let your heart be troubled.”
From the chapter: “In the darkest moments… gratitude will be a powerful act of faith that transforms everything.”
Question: What would it look like for you to practice gratitude before your circumstances change?
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