Insight E-Mag - June 2009
Book Review: Me, Myself & Bob by Phil Vischer
Reviewed by Kathy Ziegler
"At long last, after a lifetime of striving, God was enough. Not God and impact or God and ministry. Just God." So sums up the journey of Phil Vischer's life. In his book, Me, Myself and Bob, Phil Visher allows us, the readers, to accompany him on his journey, giving us candid insight into his childhood, his ministry, his great success and his failure. All of which led him to a place where he found that God is enough!
From the first words of Me, Myself and Bob, I found myself captivated by this autobiography. It may have been the style of Vischer's writing that drew me into his story. He writes with an ease and humor and honesty that can quickly take you from laughter to tears. His book is filled with stories from his life that draw you in and make you want to read more. It may also have been the story of Bob and Larry that so captivated me. At the time that Veggie Tales was rising in popularity I was a stay at home mom with three young boys. "Silly Songs by Larry" and the wisdom of Bob often filled our home. My boys loved watching Veggie Tales and not only did I enjoy sitting down with them to watch Bob and Larry over and over and over again, I also loved the songs, the Bible stories, and the words of wisdom and truth that were filling my boy's minds through such a wonderfully creative and fun venue. I found it fascinating to read the story of how these characters who had been such a part of our family, came to life. It was interesting to follow the technological journey of their creation. I have little to no background in animation technology, but I found Phil Vischer's explanation of the process he went through in bringing his characters to life to be easy to understand and interesting to read.
Even more compelling, however, was the story of the author himself. Me, Myself and Bob is the story of a young boy with a dream. A dream to become the next Walt Disney. A dream to bring pure, family friendly, godly entertainment into the homes of parents facing a world of garbage on their television screens. It is the story of a boy with a dream who grew into a man that worked passionately to make that dream come true. It is the story of a dream that reached the highest of highs and in those heights brought glory to God and truth to homes around the world. It is the story of a dream that God allowed to then fall to the lowest of lows. It is the story of a man who in the face of failure, found something of far more worth than the dream he had worked so hard to achieve... the truth that "God is enough for you, but you can't discover the truth of that statement while you're clutching at your dreams. You need to let them go. Let yourself fall. Give up." The honesty and insight with which Visher tells his story moves this autobiography to the next level. It is much more than just an interesting and fascinating story of a man's life and what he learned along the way. It is inspirational and life changing.
As I read Me, Myself and Bob, I found holding the book in one hand and a journal in the other, where I wrote down quote after quote. Quotes that would remind me of the inspiration and motivation I had when I finished reading his book. Motivation to "hold everything loosely but God Himself". The inspiration to pursue God because "the impact God has planned for us doesn't occur when we are pursuing impact. It occurs when we are pursuing God."
I highly recommend Me, Myself and Bob. It is a book that will make you laugh and make you cry. It is a book that will give you great insight into building and growing a ministry and a business. But above all it is a book that will inspire you to "dwell in the current of God's will and allow Him to supply your form and direction." Thank you, Mr.Vischer, for laying bare your life. It changed mine!
Kathy Ziegler lives in Rifle, CO and is the proud mother of 3 teenage boys and wife to her amazing and talented husband Dave. Besides homeschooling and volunteering at her church, she spends most of her time trying to keep up with her very active household! Kathy was also a Conference Assistant for the San Diego CPC, where she spent much of her limited free time scouring through the Resource Center looking for more books to read.
