I went to sleep last night still thinking about the wonder of The Chosen and still thinking about the David Bunker’s poem I shared yesterday, “Storytellers Between the Ancient and New,…” which I think brilliantly describes the way we were starving for new life breathed into ancient story. How our generation seemingly misplaced our imagination, curiosity and wonder found in the living word, for certitude, and how God is always creating and inviting us into new, as co-creators. And I was feeling deep gratitude, for God, and the identity He has given us, for our writers and composers.
When I arose, the first thing that popped into my feed was this post by our writer/poet Tyler Thompson, on the isle of Patmos, as he imagines words and worlds (while mentoring other writers to do the same) as he continues to write our story.
Just had to share this gift of a look into Tyler’s world, a look into his space, and into his heart and imagination. What a gift we have, not only in this new story, which so many of us receive as a God breathed story, but into relationship with the creators of this wondrous storytelling and composing. Their sharing is world building and enriching for us. So grateful we are here, engaged and ready to receive all that is given.
By Tyler Thompson
Writing an episode of The Chosen in Greece on Patmos where John wrote Revelation was an exercise in wonder. (To be clear, Dallas, Ryan and I write a historical drama, not divine inspiration. Please do not conflate the two.)
There is no airport or landing strip on Patmos. As we approached the island on a ferry, tears streaked behind my sunglasses as I thought about John on a smaller, wooden boat witnessing the same, having been exiled by Emperor Domitian for preaching in Ephesus. Perhaps John was just as awed by the stark, savage beauty of the volcanic archipelago rising majestic and lonely from the watery horizon ahead.
We had such different assignments. He would go to work in the slave mines. I would sleep in a comfortable Skala Hotel and type in Final Draft while also mentoring brilliant screenwriting students from around the world.
When we visited the Cave of the Apocalypse where John received his startling visions, we learned there is a ledge in the rock formation that served as a desk for John to record such lines as “And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’”
[Photos are not permitted in the Cave of the Apocalypse. But upon learning that we were writers, the monks made an exception.] As I took sunrise swims in the Aegean, and sunset sails around its sharkfin-like spikes, I thought often of John, and of my colleague George Xanthis (@georgehxanthis) who portrays him in the Chosen TV Series. (@thechosentvseries)… Of how one man’s exile is another man’s respite. Of how the world only spins forward. Of how John could not have known what his words would mean to me and so many others 2,000 years later. Of how I will never know what my words, placed in the plausibly-imagined version of John’s mouth may or may not mean to others years from now. Who can say?
All we can do is keep writing and creating, fearlessly and humbly. Forever wandering the surface of this earth, traveling to its most preserved ancient places where we hear its whispers, nay, its screams—as terrifying and imperative as the trumpet blasts from John’s dreams, that we who are created in the image of Him who is making all things new must continue making new things.
And never stop.