TRANSCEND: A Journey Toward Love.

 

Why This Story Matters — and why TRANSCEND: A Journey Toward Love exists. What Mark and LaRee Pickup have lived is more than a personal journey. It is a testimony we believe God intends to use for others. TRANSCEND is more than a movie.

It’s a declaration of hope — and a loving response to a culture that too often gives up on marriage, on life, on disability, and on the belief that love can endure when suffering lasts far longer than expected.

This film speaks directly into our moment.

In a world where families are under pressure, marriages are tested, disability is misunderstood, and hardship is met with despair or anguish, TRANSCEND offers a different message: Love can persevere, faith can deepen, and every life has immeasurable value — no matter how long or rough the road or how heavy the cost.

By supporting this campaign and the development of TRANSCEND, you are helping lay the foundation for a film that will:

- Encourage marriages to persevere through long seasons of trial

- Give voice, dignity, and visibility to people living with disabilities

- Strengthen pro-life convictions with compassion, truth, and humanity

- Share a Christ-centered vision of sacrificial, covenant love

- Reach audiences far beyond the church through professional, high-quality filmmaking

Your financial support directly helps underwrite the work required to bring this story to the screen. This includes strengthening the script, assembling a world-class creative team, and preparing a professional production and financing package capable of attracting distributors and partners worldwide.

Just as importantly, your prayers and partnership declare that stories like this still matter — stories that point people back to God’s design for love, commitment, endurance, and human worth.

If you have ever longed to see films that honor Christ, uplift families, and speak truth with grace and beauty, we invite you to be part of making TRANSCEND possible.

From the beginning until now, God has carried us.

We believe He is still writing this story — and we are deeply grateful to those who feel led to walk with us into this next chapter.

                                                                 LaRee Pickup 

Our story is a Christian love story— one we never expected to live, and one we have only survived by the grace of God.

When we were young, we were active, full of plans, and building a life together. We were the kind of couple who believed hard things could be overcome with prayer, perseverance, and love—but we didn't yet understand what it would truly require. 

Not long into our marriage, everything started to change. My husband began to lose strength in his body, little by little. What started as small signs became something far more terrifying: a catastrophic, degenerative neurological disease that slowly stole his mobility. Overtime, paralysis crept in, and eventually he was confined to a wheelchair.

And then the years kept coming and turn into decades.

The kind of decades that test everything you thought you knew about love, marriage, and faith. There were seasons where the stakes were horribly high  —  times we faced fear, uncertainty, financial strain, and the emotional toll of watching someone you love lose piece by piece their Independence, day by day. There were moments when the future felt impossible to imagine ... and yet God always gave enough strength for the next step.

We raised our children in the middle of this battle. We learned how to keep joining our home even when our circumstances were heavy. We learned how to make room for grief without surrendering hope. And through it all, we kept coming back to the same truth: God is faithful, even when life is not.

This illness has led us on a 50-year pilgrimage. 

It’s not a journey we would have chosen — but one that has deepened us in ways words can't fully explain. Overtime, God has taught us a deeper understanding of love: not just human love, but divine love. The kind of love that is patient, the kind that says please. The kind that serves. The kind that doesn't quit when the years get long.

And then …in our old age … something incredible happened

God gave us a miracle after decades in a wheelchair, after years of withered legs and the physical decline that seemed in irreversible — my husband stood! 

And then he walked. God gave us a miracle in 2018.

His legs began to strengthen and what we believed was lost started to return. We are witnessing something that feels almost impossible to describe, and we don't take it lightly. We know miracles don't always look the way we expect but we also know what we have seen.

We are starting a new chapter: one we never imagined God would write for us so late in life. From the beginning to now, God has carried us.

LaRee Pickup (depicted as Laura Fraser in the screenplay.)

AN INTERVIEW ABOUT DEGENERATIVE DISABILITY AND GRIEF (part 1& 2)

 

Below is a link to Part 1 & 2 of a radio interview I gave to Sacred Heart Radio in Seattle about disability, marriage and grief for the program LifeTalk with Dan Kennedy and Rebecca Anderson.

https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/sacredheartradio/episodes/208-From-MS-Diagnosis-to-Eucharistic-Miracle-with-Mark-Davis-Pickup-e3g011g

PART 2

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/lifetalk-nw/id1585120863?i=1000759071194

 MDP

Contact: HumanLifeMatters@shaw.ca for interviews or articles

ARE WE WITNESSING THE COLLAPSE OF WESTERN CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION?

We are watching the breakdown of western Christian civilization. A civilization rooted in Common Law for more than 700 years. It raised human liberty, dignity and freedom to heights hitherto unknown in human history.  Western Christian civilization was so precious that previous generations (including my father’s generation) were prepared to die to defend it. But threatening dark clouds are on the horizon once again.

Islamists have struck an alliance with woke liberal progressives and home-grown communists to bring it all down. Do not take this lightly. Look at communist or Islamic countries and how they treat their people. That’s what is in store for us! Islam will crush any alliances with their useful idiots once domination is within grasp.

Those of us who treasure Western Christian civilization must vocally, visibly—without violence —stop our descent into a New Dark Age. If we can stop this evil … we may yet continue toward new sunlit uplands of human freedom and liberty for posterity. The hour is late and the enemy is at the gate. Rise up and defend our dying western culture and the Christian ethos it spawned and a societal mindset that governed us so well.

A FATHER'S DEATH ON A SKI HILL

Such a beautiful winter day for skiing! The cold air was crisp and fresh. It was a day that would change the course of sixteen-year-old Dan’s life forever. He and his father George stood at the top of a ski slope. They loved skiing together. Such times were bonding times that seemed sacred It between father and son doing something they both loved together. They headed down the slope. Suddenly and unexpectedly, George had a massive heart attack and fell. 

Dan skied up to him and noticed George was groaning, face down in the snow. 

“Dad, are you okay?” There was no response.

“Dad?” No response.

“What’s wrong Dad? Dad! What’s wrong?!”

Dan frantically ripped off his skis then his father’s and turned
him over. George's eyes rolled back into his head. He was dying. Dan lowered his cheek to George’s lips. He wasn’t breathing. Dan screamed for help. He began to rock George's dying body in his arms like a baby. He wept.

Then, out of season and contradictory to their migration patterns, Dan thought he heard a lonesome cry of a loon, like a harbinger of things to come.

________________________

This is an AI generated image depicting a scene from my screenplay TRANSCEND: A Journey Toward Love based on my own true story. See screenplay website at www.transcendtolovemovie.com

NB: I replaced the names of the principal characters from LaRee and I to Laura and Dan. We shared our story to bring glory to God, not us.

OBSESSED WITH THE GODESS OF YOUTH AND PHYSICAL BEAUTY

 

I know a ravishingly beautiful young woman with Hollywood good looks. For the sake of anonymity, let me call her Aphrodite, after the Greek goddess of beauty.  Aphrodite’s statuesque beauty takes men’s breath away when she enters a room. Her physical beauty may seem like a blessing to the casual observer, but in actual fact, it has become her biggest curse.  

 

She does not know adversity. A life without adversity is a life without challenges. A life without challenges is a life without the opportunity to develop character. Saint Paul commented that troubles and trials produce human qualities like endurance which produces strength of character (Romans 5.3-4). Aphrodite’s character development is so stunted it verges on a disability.  

 

Aphro’ rarely hears the word ‘No.’ All it takes is a slight quiver of her perfect chin, a misty look from her stunning aqua-blue eyes, and the answer shifts to “Oh, all right.” The hint of feigned sadness disappears from Aphrodite’s angelic face.

 

Aphrodite’s exceptional beauty ensures she is doted upon by everyone she meets. It has been this way since she was a small child. Her divine beauty ensured she was spoiled and doted upon beginning with her first step.

 

Aphrodite always gets the best seat, the largest and sweetest candy bar, the most extravagant Christmas presents. She is vain, shallow, self-centered and mean. Beneath her perfect physical beauty bubbles a cauldron of resentments, selfishness and bitterness.  Yes, Aphrodite’s exterior beauty has made her ugly inside and that is why her blessing is her curse. 

 

People don’t like Aphrodite (she thinks it’s because they are jealous).  There is something sad about Aphrodite. She has the depth of crackers and her life is without meaning.

 

The problem is that physical beauty is a commodity of diminishing returns.  Beauty peaks at about twenty-two years then slowly begins to decline. In the end, it will be consumed like a moth. The day will come when men will no longer look at Aphrodite rather past her or through her to a new younger beauty walking behind her.  Aphrodite will be plain ‘Jane’ which was her real name all along.

 

Western society is obsessed with youth and physical beauty.  It is a poverty of the age in which we live. Youth fades, so does physical beauty. Yet so much attention and investment is dedicated to clinging to their memory long after youth and beauty have faded away.  Botox and collagen injections, tummy tucks, face lifts, volumizing vitamin fortified shampoos, conditioners and gallons of hair colour to hide the grey become increasingly desperate and sad.  Meanwhile, the true inner self – heart, spirit and soul – are starved of attention and important eternal development! The spiritual soul is the very thing Jane neglected as long as she was Aphrodite.  

 

A physical body will surely wither and die but the spiritual soul is immortal.  The Bible tells us that a human life is but a breath of time: “[Y]ou have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears.” (James 4:14)  The Psalmist compared us to grass that flourishes  in the morning and in the evening is cut down and withers. (Psalm 90.5-6). 

 

The Church teaches that the human body is animated by its spiritual soul. The body and soul together form a profound unity and single nature made in “image of God.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 364-365). Though body and soul are separated at death they will be reunited at the Final Resurrection (CCC. 366).

 

We must have reverence and respect for our physical bodies. (Even a broken body like mine is a gift from God.) Sanctity of the body is the Scriptural concept. Having reverence for the body is different than worshipping it. 

 

Saint Paul said, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19).  He went on to exhort us to glorify God in our bodies. This happens when we follow Christ. Jane can glorify God in her body ― Aphrodite can not.

     

Did you know it is impossible to believe in Jesus Christ without sharing in his Spirit? It is the Holy Spirit who reveals who Jesus really is.[1] (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 152, 154, 683).  

 

Life in our physical body is series of ‘teachable moments”; the holy Spirit is the divine teacher. Aphrodite’s is not a student, her ego ensures that. But Jane can be a student of life, if she allows it. If Jane turns her spiritual ears to the leading of the holy Spirit then even adversity, trials, and sorrow become teachable moments. The divine teacher will become the divine Counselor and Comforter.

Jesus said “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor ^to be with you forever ― the Spirit of truth, ^which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14.16-18.)

The “Counselor” is the holy Spirit. He will reveal Jesus Christ as the great I Am, God made man, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of world. Unlike Aphrodite, Jane can be a child of God through believing upon Jesus as Messiah (John 1.12).  Through faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the Cross she can be reconciled to God. Life will become a rich source of “teachable moments” in preparation for eternity.

 

With the holy Spirit abiding within Jane, living a prayerful, repentant and sacramental life for Jesus, receiving his body in the Eucharist, Jane’s heart, spirit and soul can be nurtured to blossom into something beautiful and lasting. Outwardly she may age and diminish but inwardly she will be renewed and spiritually grow.

 

Goodbye Aphrodite, hello Jane.

 

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[1]1Corinthians 12.3.





ESSENTIAL CHRISTIAN GROWTH OF TAKING UP YOUR CROSS

 

My wife and I spoke to Edmonton’s Catholic Renewal Services group. They are affiliated with the Charismatic Renewal movement. They are on fire for the Lord. My wife and I loved them! 

 

We sang songs of praise to God, we prayed, had breakfast together, laughed and fellowshipped together. The presence of the Holy Spirit filled the room. 

 

When it came time for us to speak, LaRee and I shared our life story which included abortion, post-abortion grief, acquiring serious degenerative disability and the fears (sometimes downright terror) that comes with it. We spoke about a journey that began with sin and broken hearts, anger with life and God, then gradually moved toward acceptance, repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation. It was only then, with God’s tender leading, that we began to receive a renewed understanding about life, love (both human and divine), and something about what our Lord meant by taking up our cross daily (Luke 9.23). It was not an easy presentation because it required us to be vulnerable and brutally honest ― but we were among Christian friends. 

 

This is not unique to us. Everyone must take up a cross of one sort or another. Sometimes it is obvious to other people and sometimes it is not. But each of us is called to take up our cross and carry it. In his classic Christian book The Imitation of Christ, the fifteenth century priest Thomas à Kempis wrote about the universal calling of taking up one’s cross: “No man’s heart can experience what Christ endured in His passion except the man who suffered as he did. ... The cross is, therefore, always in readiness for you and everywhere awaits you. Wherever you choose to run you will not escape it because you always take yourself with you and you will always find yourself.” 

 

Taking up your cross will turn you toward your interior self. It is a critically important decision you must make every day. Taking up your cross involves the essential work of Christian growth. The daily struggle and suffering under the weight of your cross is where personal purification occurs. Bearing the cross requires you to chastise your will and body and bring them into subjection of God. It is not easy but it is necessary. Like I say, it requires work and suffering. Some people will refuse the cross ― but they can not escape it. As Thomas à Kempis reminds us, the cross is always before us and waiting because we cannot escape ourselves. 

 

The sick or disabled must face and accept their affliction. The lonely must face their loneliness; their cross may change it to sweet solitude.  The addict must face his addiction demons. Bearing the cross may be different for each person, but they must face it, and face it each day. In extreme cases, they must decide every hour to take up their cross. 

 

What’s your cross? Don’t be surprised that it requires suffering (emotional, spiritual or physical). Suffering can have a refining effect as with gold in fire. Saint Paul said in his letter to the Romans that he considered ^ “the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.” Later in 2 Corinthians he reflected, “^ For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,^ as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.”

 

For those who allow the cross to conform them to Christ crucified, they will find it is the way that leads to the Kingdom of God.  

 

A consolation of the cross you take up is that Christ will walk with us under its weight. Your individual cross – no matter how onerous or burdensome it may be – is never heavier that the cross  Christ endured. Remember that you are not alone. Christ is there just as He has been with Christians throughout history who took up their crosses. 

 

If we unite our lesser sufferings with Christ’s Passion , crucifixion and Resurrection, we will discover a strange yet wonderful internal transformation is beginning to occur that's drawng us closer to Christ and away from ourselves. 

 

 

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FEAR HAS BEEN A TERRIBLE MOTIVATION IN MY LIFE

https://youtube.com/shorts/8BryvILG1MQ?feature=share