WE’RE MAKING A MOVIE! As many times as I tried to run from it, this thing just kept coming after me (see what I did there…)
When DeVon called me in the summer of 2018 to discuss the possibility of making a Reckless Love movie, I had every intention of telling him, “Thanks, but no thanks.” If you know me, you know how highly I value authenticity & realness, so taking advantage of the success of a song God had freely given me felt a bit exploitative. I didn’t want to “milk it” ...for all it was worth. I wanted to protect & preserve its purity at all costs, which in my mind, meant NOT “selling out” to cool opportunities that came my way. I was also mindful of the fragility of my relationship with my dad (upon which parts of the initial story were predicated) & I didn’t want to expose him (or myself) in an untimely manner. As my conversation with Devon went on, he said a phrase that really struck my heart & caused me to see beyond myself… “Cory, what if this film is bigger than you & your story? What if it brings healing to your dad & dads all across the world?” I flew to North Carolina the next day to ask my dad’s permission & we wept together. It was the first step toward healing our relationship. Needless to say, I was listening to what God might want to do through the whole thing.
Fast forward to 2019 — my sabbatical year. The Father was doing such an incredible work of healing in my heart, unraveling years of brokenness & wrong thinking. In the midst of it, I kept praying for a mouthpiece, a platform, some way to blast the message He was writing in me to the world. I was hoping for a song or a sermon, but He saw something much bigger. DeVon called to let me know he’d found the perfect writer — J. Mills Goodloe. It all made sense. The film was the vehicle God wanted to use to get the message of His love to the world.
We’ve got a lot of work to do to bring this project to completion, but I am incredibly excited to share the story with you all. The film is about surrender, about letting go & falling into the reckless love of God. It follows the story of a broken young man who finds God & family at the cost of well… everything. And my wife is the hero, not me.