The Edit | Marianne Haaland on Knowing When It's a Passion vs. a Calling

Writer and Actress Marianne Haaland details when she knew her passion was God's calling for her career.

Encouragement and insight in under 15 minutes.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

I want to talk a little bit about when did you first sense that acting was a passion of yours, but a calling from God?

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Wow. Well, I started acting when I was probably eight. I was a missionary kid in Madagascar, which a lot of people know. But for those of you who don't know, I lived in dorms away from my parents. And every year we would put on about three plays a year. And then all the parents would come and watch them. And I would get attention and I would be seen and I would feel so loved. And, you know, um, as who was struggling with abandonment issues, it was something that I sorely needed was to be seen. And then it developed into I didn't want to be who I was. And so I wanted to be all these different characters. And so it was a lot of like kind of struggles that made me really enjoy the art of storytelling and the art of being an actor. But then it molded into wow, this is like God has made me an emotional person on purpose. God has actually given me these stories that I have lived through to make me able to do these things. And it was all I could think about for years. And I tried to go to college for multiple things. I was applying to political science and to psychology, um, but didn't get into those. I just got into an acting college and just really felt like, okay, there's no plan B. This is what I'm meant to do. And I do feel like the Lord has really that He has called me to it. And for many years, it was a very dry season. Like I moved to LA to gung ho pursue this. And then it was like desert land for what felt like an eternity, but it was like more like nine years or so. And I thought, did I get it wrong? Did I not feel called to this? Am I not called to this? God just give me the desire for anything else. I will sit and be a receptionist and work phones and like I don't have to do this. I just want to follow you. And I felt like he was saying, you'll get it when you're ready. Just you'll get it when you're ready. And, you know, that full time I was like, okay, but I am ready, Lord. But I've I realized that I was ready to. This is gonna sound terrible. I was ready for myself to be worshipped. I was not ready for him to be worshipped. And I wasn't aware of how much my career and myself was an idol. And I think that I have come to a place now where I honestly just want to worship the Lord with what I'm doing. Um, and if all he wants me to do is be a mom, or if all he wants me to do is sit at home and pray for other people, then I'm willing to do that. I just want to do what he's asking of me.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

And so well, no, that's such a great answer because it's so authentic. I think that's one of the places we all have to get to. And and and whether whatever the career is, the path, right? It's like, and I think that's why the question is, what you know, how did you come into this your passion versus the calling, right? Because we I I talk about that all the time. It's like, is it my passion or is it my desire or is it God's calling? And that is something that we as believers really have to think about as we navigate our careers and and really take this journey. I love what you said though. There's so many things I'm thinking about going back. You've been part of many, many incredible movies. You've had so many um just not only just the films that you've been in, but now you've been in television series, you just wrote a project, you just, I mean, and it wasn't even that you just wrote in it, you you wrote it, you starred in it, you produced it. And it was the very first time for Faith Channel. And so I want to navigate all of those, but I want to go back a little bit just as we start to dig into this conversation, is when the Lord did bring you to Los Angeles and and it felt like it was a dry kind of desert season. What was it? What were some of the things that you felt like? How did you plug into your community? Where did the Lord start to lead you so that as it wasn't about you being worshipped, it was really about teaching you to follow, abide, and rest in him so that when he did bring you the things that he wanted you to have, you were able and really could look at it from a different perspective. So, what were some of the things that led you to the place where you are today?

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Well, community is you hit that spot on the head. I think that one of the things that I love is um that saying of opportunity meets preparedness. But I so I prepared a lot for, you know, if and when my career would one day take off. I so I I studied and I went to acting class and I never gave that up. But I also was very intentional with my time and being a woman of my word and following through and connecting with different groups. Specifically, I feel like I was very involved with the women of my world and you really, really helped shape who I am. You helped me to discover who I am in Christ. So I give you a lot of credit for that. I'm so grateful for the women of my world.