This past week, a short little video I had made a couple of years ago resurfaced on Facebook. I had posted it 2 years ago and a cousin brought it back up. In this video, my wife Sheila and I, along with our children, had gone to see an aunt of hers. In the course of the evening, this aunt began to sing some of the older songs from her generation, on the verge of being forgotten by ours. It was wonderful to hear her singing all these songs and that was when I took this video. At the end of the evening, I hooked my iPhone to the computer, worked with it a little bit on iMovie and then put it up on Facebook. I also looked into burning a CD through iDVD and giving it to some of the other relatives who might enjoy it.
Looking at this video and the number of people who have been blessed by it, I was reminded of what Steve Jobs once said about iMovie. He said, "Using iMovie makes your camcorder ten times more valuable (p. 381)." Basically saying that we often take pictures or movies but then don't know what to do with them. I'm not talking about now, but about 3-4 years ago. He said that what iMovie did was "allowed people to be creative, to express themselves, to make something emotional." So true! It allowed me to be creative, to express myself and to hang on to something that had great emotional content.
I thought of Steve Jobs today because the movie Steve Jobs has won 2 Golden Globe awards, one for Best Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin and the other for Best Supporting Actress by Kate Winslet. It brought Steve Jobs back to mind as I was thinking about the video and the Golden Globe Awards. He had tremendous vision for everything that he did. He was able to look at something embryonic and see it to its full fulfillment. It had me thinking of iMovie and all that goes with it.
I went back to Walter Isaacson's biography on Steve Jobs and the little chapter headed 'The Digital Hub'. In this he talks about the FireWire. This was technology that happened in the early 1990s. It was a high-speed serial port that moved large digital files such as videos from one device to another. It became very popular with Japanese camcorder makers. They adapted it and put it into their devices. Steve Jobs decided to include it in versions of the iMac as well, hoping to have a handle on the ability to download stuff onto the computer and even edit. For that however, he needed the right kind of application.
So he went to his friends at Adobe and talked to them. Surprisingly, they said they were not interested. At that point, they were doing something for Windows computers – Adobe Premiere. They just turned down Steve Jobs saying flatly that Macintosh had too few users to make it worthwhile. Steve Jobs was livid when it happened, saying, "I put Adobe on the map (p. 380)." He was so upset, thinking something had to be done so they would not be held hostage when others couldn't see the things they wanted to and could do. That became the start for Apple to have end-to-end control of all key elements of a system. In fact, he said, "My primary insight when we were screwed by Adobe in 1999 was that we shouldn't get into any business where we didn't control both the hardware and the software, otherwise we'd get our head handed to us (p. 380)."
What happened? Out of that came Final Cut Pro, for editing digital video; iMovie, which was a simpler consumer version; iDVD, for burning video or music onto a disc; iPhoto, to compete with Adobe Photoshop; Garage Band, for creating and mixing music; iTunes, for managing your songs; and the iTunes Store for buying songs. All of this came about from that one moment when Adobe shut the door on him, and said, "We don't see it the way you see it."
This made me think of the dreams we have. Sometimes we take these dreams to other people and say, "This is what I have in mind!" However if they don't see it our way, it gets shut down. Very often, when other people shut down our dreams, we tend to think it's the end of that dream and it was not really worthwhile. But, here's my takeaway, just from looking at all that Steve Jobs did. We ought not to ever think that our dreams have no value because others don't see their benefit. Others see benefit only where it is relevant to them. As Adobe did. They looked at Macintosh users and said that it would not help them in any way. But it was a huge dream for Steve Jobs and one that has metamorphed into such a wonderful avenue for amateurs to do so much of good work.
How about your dreams? Do you have dreams brushed aside by people you once shared them with? Perhaps you have dreams today that are still awaiting pursuit? Maybe today is the day God has ordained for you to not give up on something that is burning within you. Then this post is just for you – God's way of saying He is not done with it. Then you need to press hard, think of other ways to do it. Or maybe today you are saying to yourself – "Well, I gave up on my dreams a long time ago. That boat has sailed. There's no way for me to go back." Maybe you are wrong.
I am sure you have watched "The Ten Commandments", the great Cecil B. DeMille's epic that came out many years ago, with Charlton Heston playing Moses. Moses had a dream. He wanted to help the slaves working in Egypt. But his plans went awry and he had to flee for his life. He became a shepherd on a mountainside. But his dream and God's dream were consistent. The only problem was the difference in both modus operandi and timing. He used wrong methods, but God hadn't forgotten that dream because God is the dream-giver. He pulled Moses back at the right time, with the right modus operandi to help free the Israelites from Egypt.
I wonder whether today, God wants to do that for you as well. Is there a dream that has been tucked away or forgotten? Maybe He's saying, "Dust it off! I'm not done with it yet, because I'm still a part of that dream."
Just a word for you for the start of the year 2016. Don't give up on dreams easily. If you're at the point where others haven't seen the benefit yet, push through. Maybe it's something more that you need to do or develop or talk to another person. Look deep within yourself and see if you can do something a bit different. Or maybe today is the day when you bring back the dreams you thought were lost. Either way, my prayer is that God would give you wisdom to know how to handle it during these days.
May I offer this prayer on your behalf?
Almighty God, You are the dream-giver. I pray that the dreams You have placed in our hearts will indeed find the light of day and be fulfilled, because You don't give up on us or on the dreams that You have placed in us. So I pray for each one who is reading this post. Let the dreams You have placed come alive so that they will be fulfilled in these days that are ahead of us. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen.
References
• DeMille, C.B. & Wilcoxon, H. (Producers), & DeMille, C.B. (Director). (1956) The ten commandments [Motion Picture]. U.S.A.: Paramount
• Isaacson, Walter. Steve Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print.
• Mitchell Broussard, "Kate Winslet & Aaron Sorkin win for 'Steve Jobs' at Golden Globes." http://www.macrumors.com/2016/01/11/kate-winslet-aaron-sorkin-win-golden-globes/
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