My Favorite Vegetables…

Josiah and Larry the Cucumber

…would absolutely have to be VeggieTales! If you’re a parent of young kids, you probably know what I’m talking about. I got into the show back when I was in college, and now my three-year-old is almost as big a fan as me! I’ve always loved the show’s humor, and the subtle way the creators have made it entertaining for adults, without resorting to “adult” humor (like a certain movie that I’m not going to name here [which I really did enjoy] about a big green ogre voiced by Mike Myers).

Anyway, I’d known that Big Idea, the company founded by Phil “Bob the Tomato” Vischer and Mike “Larry the Cucumber” Nawrocki, had gone bankrupt some time ago, was now owned by another company, and was still making videos, but I didn’t know much more than that. I stumbled onto a blog the other day, owned by none other than Phil Vischer!

Phil has a long (11 posts!) story about the collapse of his dream, and what he’s learned through all of this. At the end of the LONG story, he writes, “A dream is a powerful thing. There is little more thrilling than seeing a dream come to life. And little more heartbreaking than watching it die.”

It saddened me to read Phil’s story; his passion and ultimately, anguish, are quite evident. His mistakes cost a lot of people their jobs, and cost him relationships with a lot of those people. Parts of the story, especially from the perspective of someone who owns a business, were excruciatingly, squirmingly, painful to read. There are lots of business mistakes to be learned from within — growing without a plan, setting goals that should not be set, spending too much money on the wrong marketing, thinking too highly of one’s business, overestimating the power of vegetables.

The things Phil learned that most affected me were much more personal. In a much shorter story at his new company’s website, he writes:

First, our relationships with God are much more important than our work for God. God doesn’t want us to be “busy,” he wants us to be available. He doesn’t want us to focus on “impact,” he wants us to focus on obedience. If we’re walking with Him, we’ll know when He has something specific for us to do. We don’t need to make stuff up. If we’re so wrapped up in the work we’re doing for God that we can’t even make eye contact with the person bagging our groceries, something in our lives is way out of whack.

Second, to be a Christian is to give Christ “lordship” of our lives. That’s what it means. He’s Lord, we’re not. And if we’ve given Christ lordship of our lives, where we are in 20 years is, frankly, none of our business. Where we are in 5 years is none of our business. What is our business, is what God has told us to do today, and whether or not we’re doing it. That’s it.

Phil’s story seems to be at a happy place at the moment; he is at work at a new creative venture, is still writing scripts for VeggieTales, and (most important to my son) is still performing Bob the Tomato’s and a whole host of other character’s voices.

Reading through parts of his tale again as I post this, I’m still struck with a profound sadness. “Phil’s ‘big idea’ died under the weight of Phil’s own ambition. Even though it was ambition to do ‘good,’ it still amounted to a failure to allow God to lead him on a daily basis. A failure to follow. To submit.”

I’m reminded of a song by Mark Heard: “And baby, don’t our dreams die hard, in the ashes of destiny…”

Humming to self: “And so what we have learned, applies to our lives today…”

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8 March 2007 | Business, Life, Musings | Comments