Award-winning Christian filmmaker Alex Kendrick is revealing lessons he learned during two medical battles this year, including a mild stroke that placed him in the hospital.
"God is good," he told Christian Headlines.
Kendrick, the director of such faith-based hits as War Room and Overcomer, had a mild stroke in March and recently had surgery to remove melanoma skin cancer off the top of his head.
He is the only director ever to make three straight movies that earned an A+ CinemaScore rating (Overcomer, War Room and Courageous). CinemaScore is an exit polling service that asks moviegoers, on opening weekend, to grade a film.
Kendrick was the executive producer of a new movie, Lifemark, that releases on Dec. 13 on DVD and other home video platforms. That same day, Walmart will begin selling a DVD package that includes the first seven movies from Alex and his brother, Stephen.
He acknowledged it's been a "rough year health-wise." The doctor, he said, called it a "mild" stroke.
"I had had some issues with that for a number of weeks and slowly overcame that. There's a couple of minor things that stayed with me, but they're not stopping me," he said, adding that the melanoma cancer surgery "went well."
"They're sure they got all the cancer. I'm very grateful for that," he said. "So [there were a] couple of scary moments, but I'm very, very grateful and thankful to the Lord. But no matter what happens, He is good and is always faithful and loyal and deserves our praise and worship. … I'm gonna keep rolling, and as long as the Lord allows me to, will keep serving Him and doing what He's called us to do."
The medical battles, he said, taught him multiple spiritual lessons.
"It's for you and I to honor and walk with God, no matter our circumstances," Kendrick said, discussing what he learned from God. "So there are days I feel great, and you feel like praising the Lord. And then there are days that you don't feel good, and you have hurdles in front of you. Or you feel terrible. [But] we should still worship the Lord because He's God. We don't worship … [only] on the days we feel blessed. We worship God because of who He is [and] He loves us.
"This life is short. Eternity is long. And eternity is perfect – we will feel perfect, we will be with the Lord and with the mind of Christ and in His presence. And so I look forward to those days.
And so sometimes these hurdles make you stop and sit back and just remind yourself, this is temporary. … At some point, what I'm going through will pass. I have eternity to look forward to and a faithful God."
Meanwhile, Alex and his brother Stephen told Christian Headlines they will begin shooting their next movie in 2023.
"We're very excited about that," Alex Kendrick said, "[but] I won't let too much out of the bag yet."
Photo courtesy: ©Kendrick Brothers, used with permission.
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.