Mark Katrick faith column: Building your own 'Field of Dreams' according to God's plan

July is a great time to see a movie in an air-conditioned theater or at the drive-in. In a previous column, I remarked how hard it is to make a top 10 list of your all-time favorites. There are way too many to choose from. But when it comes to naming your all-time favorite movie, my choice would be instantaneous and irrevocable.

While I’m typing away, there’s a voice saying, “If you build this column, the words will come.”

By now you may have guessed that it is the Academy Award-nominated and critically acclaimed “Field of Dreams” that I’m writing about. There’s no better way to celebrate the heart of summer than watching this classic with a cold glass of lemonade.

Katrick faith column: In the heart of summer, winds of the Holy Spirit not unlike A/C

Starring Kevin Costner, Ray Liotta, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones and Burt Lancaster (in his final big-screen role), the film features a farmer (Costner) who builds a baseball field in his cornfield that attracts legends like Shoeless Joe Jackson (Liotta). The first time we got our supersized popcorn and soft drinks and sat down to watch in extra comfy theatre seats, the storyline took me back to happier, simpler days.

Once again, I found myself at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, cooled by gentle breezes coming in off Lake Erie. This was where legendary drummer, John Adams, began his quest of 3,700 games to rally the team and its loyal fans to victory.

It brought to life my own field of dreams, when I mowed the “back 40” for pickup games with the neighborhood kids. Like Costner’s character, Ray Kinsella, and his father who came from heaven (the Iowa cornfields) to have a catch with his son, my dad and I spent many a summer’s night tossing the ball back and forth.

Katrick faith column: Working together for the common good

Another thing that an epic film does is to help you realize your dreams. Though I had no aspiration to be a major leaguer, mine was to experience a perpetually losing franchise become a habitual winner. That finally happened in the 1990s in the friendly confines of a brand new ballpark, Jacob’s Field. And there I was, with Adams and a packed house that would sell out for 455 consecutive games.

“In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” (Acts 2:17)

Like many of the characters in the Bible, God has a plan for you and me. Whenever you get down and discouraged that these plans are not unfolding quickly enough, stop look and listen for the drumbeat of God’s still, small voice saying: “If you build it with a determined faith and persistent prayer life, sooner or later, on some soft, starlit night, your field of dreams will come true.”

They surely did for John Adams, back in the ’90s. Then, this past Jan. 30, Jesus took him through the Iowa cornfields to his heavenly home.

The Rev. Mark Katrick is a guest columnist for the Newark Advocate and an ordained minister.

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Mark Katrick faith column: Building your own 'Field of Dreams'