It sounds like a movie script, but Lee Stanley's story of taking on the juvenile justice system and ending up a multiple Emmy Award winner is a true story.

He recounts it in Faith in the Land of Make-Believe: What God Can Do ... Even in Hollywood (Zondervan), released this month. The Hollywood writer, producer and director tells how he suffered a divorce, fought a battle with anger and endured the pronouncement by a professional that one of his sons would have to go into special classes so one day he'd be able to live on his own—through it all, learning how to depend on God.

"I didn't know that the journey that He was carving out for me would lead me down the path that would end up at a red carpet at Grauman's Chinese Theatre with the No. 1 hit movie in the world," he said, referring to Gridiron Gang starring Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, who also wrote the book's foreword.

"I learned that Christ is who He says He is, but the one thing that I did not expect was that in the process Jesus would reveal exactly who I was and that in order for me to fulfill my God-ordained purpose on earth, I'd have to change—a change that only God Almighty could bring about," Stanley told Christian Retailing.

After becoming a Christian, Stanley said that God promised him that he would take violent, juvenile offenders out to sea and make a film documenting the voyage, and he did just that—but it took years of wrangling with the judicial system.

His story, he says, is proof that "God keeps His word, and He is exactly who He says He is, if you have the guts to trust Him."

Read more in the March issue of Christian Retailing.

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