Ammunition > Heroics

Today is a day when most people go out of their way to be goofy and ridiculous. If you know me pretty well, you're aware that it's a constant struggle for many people to try to determine how serious I'm being (general hint: not very, most of the time). So I thought that it would be sort of appropriate to take a break from my blog's usual lightheartedness and share something more meaningful.
Why try to say something ridiculous, make weird lies and exaggerations, or be sarcastic? You get that all the time already!


I recently finished reading Phil Vischer's book: Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story about God, Dreams, and Talking Vegetables.
If you don't know about Phil Vischer, I'll give you an overview of who he is and what he's done.
Phil Vischer is the creator of a Veggie Tales, a series of 3D animated short Christian films for kids. It was actually fairly revolutionary (he says that, as far as he is aware, it was the first half-hour CGI home video series), techinically speaking. And in addition to being educational, it was also very funny, well-written, and charming. At the time (and probably even now) there were very few Christian videos for kids (or anyone, really) that were worth anyone's time. Most other stuff just tends to be lame.
As a result, Veggie Tales became quite successful, and grew to be very large. But then the whole company (Big Idea) fell apart, falling into bankruptcy and being bought out by a much larger company, Classic Media, that you're probably more familiar with. Phil Vischer continued contributing his voice and writing, but it was on a much smaller level, and he wasn't in charge anymore... he was working for the company he started himself.
After that happened, things got even worse. This December, further financial troubles caused the newly reformed Big Idea to cut staff significantly. Now what's left is a "skeleton crew", and unless someone with a lot of money buys Big Idea and starts it up again, we've probably more or less seen the end of Veggie Tales.
Anyway, the book started out how you'd expect it to, and was really engaging. It was just like the best success stories.
But of course, it was not just a story of success. It was a story of failure. Who wants to read about failures? It's depressing, and not very motivating. But this book taught me a lot. That's what failure does; it teaches you. And Phil passed on his lessons so that other people could learn from them too.
What do you think the lessons were about, though? About how to manage a business better so that it doesn't fail? There was some of that, but it wasn't the real point of the book. So was it about getting back to your feet and recovering from failure? About trying again, and working hard?
No. Because Phil Vischer didn't.
When he started out, he wanted to make something good. He wanted to make Christian kids' videos that would actually be of quality and have an impact. And as things grew, his dreams became loftier. He wanted to be "the next Walt Disney" or "the Christian Walt Disney". He wanted Big Idea to be huge, and not because of glory or fame, but because he wanted to make an impact.
You might not think there's anything wrong with that. But Phil watched his company collapse because, essentially, it became too big. His vision was too great. And he saw, after all of that, that that wasn't what God wanted for him. God didn't want him to become "the next Walt Disney" or even "the Christian Walt Disney". That wasn't His plan.
Life isn't about causing the greatest impact. It's about being where God wants you to be. Some people do make an enormous impact. But everyone will affect different people. Maybe God just wants you to be you. You might minister to people that nobody else will be able to minister to as well. Everyone has a specific place.
And to find it, you have to stop and let God guide you. You can't come up with your own gigantic plans and say "surely God would want me to do that". It's not your place to know what God wants. His plan is perfect, and yours isn't.
Up until recently, I didn't used to like the idea of encouraging people to "follow your dream". I wasn't really sure why. I was just cynical; it seemed pointless and unrealistic. And yet... somehow, there I was, not very long ago at all, with very real dreams (not that they were very big). And as I read Mr. Vischer's book, I felt encouraged and started to get excited. Maybe the things I wanted were a real possibility. I knew how the story ended, but his point came out of nowhere. I was surprised. And yet it made so much sense. The idea of having your own dreams, long term goals, and ambitions is not at all Biblical. We're not supposed to do what we feel is right... We're supposed to do what we believe God wants us to do.
I know that, especially to those of you reading this who may not be Christians, this may seem like the wackiest idea ever.
But trust me. It makes way more sense than you would ever think.
And if you're interested, read the book. Because he made his point a lot better than I did... It's his story, after all.


...I might come back and revise this later so that my meaning is more clear and possibly more detailed.

Our regularly scheduled, less serious programming will resume tomorrow (or whenever I get around to posting again).