I've been in LA for five and a half years. I've been to a handful of auditions and taken a ton of classes. I feel like God has created me to be an actress. But it seems like I'm just not good enough. How do I know when to let go, and how do I move on? I've wanted to act since I was seven years old. I don't know who I am outside of being an actress.

I applaud your courage in actively pursuing your dream of becoming an actress by moving to LA, taking classes, and going on auditions. If many of us had any idea of how costly and painful the pursuit of Hollywood can be, we might have just taken the return flight back home upon arrival.

I would like to challenge you, though, by suggesting that God created you not to be an actress, but for what the Shorter Catechism (PCUSA) calls "the chief end of Man: . to glorify God and enjoy him forever." You have chosen, because of your unique talents and passions, to carry out this commission to glorify God and enjoy him by pursuing acting in L.A. I am attempting to separate your feeling that God has created you to be an actress from your choice to pursue it, because if the former is true, your lack of success (as defined by earning a living as an actress) means you have let God down. This feels like a graceless, works-based theology in which you are being punished for "not being good enough."

Many people who have sought creative lives in Hollywood must eventually take a hard look at where their vision, sense of call, hopes and dreams intersect with the hard reality of the pursuit. Should I walk away? Can I afford to continue this road? Can I afford NOT to given the investment I've made in blood, sweat, tears, classes, and making connections?

Is it possible that God isn't calling us to success in Hollywood, but simply that he calls us to the pursuit? Perhaps this call to pursuit encompasses the two goals of the great commission as noted above. To glorify God: not as we dream about, in thanking Jesus from the podium as we accept the Oscar, but in being the salt of the earth as God's people alongside others who are struggling to survive in Hollywood just as we are. To enjoy him forever: to grow, stretch, and learn about who he is and who we are as we navigate the numerous and mountainous obstacles toward earning the most basic living in our chosen field.

It sounds as though your pursuit of Hollywood has not been a journey of self-discovery, but a trial in which your sense of self has been trampled. If you redefine your understanding of why God created you, it may be easier to decide whether to continue to pursue it or not. God often calls us into seasons. Is God calling you to a new season, in which you continue to discover him and who you are (and what is possible in the intersection of the two) in a new pursuit? As a human you will experience grief and loss at walking away from the dream, even if God is calling you away to a new pursuit.

In order to remain on the road you've chosen, you may need to redefine your Hollywood journey not as the journey toward success but the journey toward understanding "Who am I in God?" Your success depends then not on being cast in the hot pilot of the season, but in knowing yourself regardless of external indicators of success.

Who is our Therapist?
Joanne Weidman, MFT, is a licensed marriage and family therapist and former "Development-girl". A graduate of PennStateUniversity and Fuller Theological Seminary, she is on staff at La Vie Counseling Center in Pasadena. Email Joanne with questions or comments at joanneweidman@yahoo.com