(a Steve Orr scripture reflection)
He had a great idea—that got him fired.
It was a new level of computer animation. He pitched it as something the company should do. And that’s when he got fired. His boss said he was being fired because he was “screwing around with crazy ideas instead of doing his job.”
End of story.
People get fired every day. It almost always feels like the end. Still, given a little time, we eventually discover that what seems like the end of our story is really the beginning of another chapter.
Our young animator was disappointed in his company's response. But he was unwilling to be defeated by it. He went looking for more receptive ears—and he found them:
In the person of Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computing.
Soon, he was at the center of an animation revolution. Before long he was a producer of such hits as Toy Story and Finding Nemo. They say that one man's trash is another man's treasure. In this case, it was Disney's trash that became Pixar's treasure.
But even that isn't the end of the story. When Disney later acquired Pixar, that former employee returned to Disney where he became the head of Disney’s animation.
As Yogi Berra may or may not have said: “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
In this week's scriptures, we see two chapters in the story of Israel’s King Saul and future King David. Those were some dark times: scary situations with adversaries, rejection of David by King Saul, and some worse times ahead. God's story for David had many more chapters to go. Despite how bad things got, though, David remained confident in God. And, as we know, God honored David's faith.
There can be hard times in our lives, even very dark times. But we must remember: Our lives come in seasons, and our stories are told in chapters. Be patient. Allow the time for God's plan to unfold. You never know what is just around the corner.
But God knows.
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“It ain’t over till it’s over.” (Did Yogi Berra actually say that?)
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