In an industry where originality is becoming exceptionally rare and parity tends to be rewarded with huge sacks of money, Hi-Fi Rush stood tall as a beacon of hope for both gamers and game developers… could an off-beat, truly unique gaming experience still find a path to success in the increasingly crowded digital marketplace that is Microsoft’s Game Pass service? As the Game Pass service continues to evolve alongside all of Microsoft’s ever-growing internal studio acquisitions, the hope for most gamers is that it would finally provide a safe haven for titles that might not have had an opportunity to stand out or even be created without it. As physical game production is slowing down and the cost of developing games continues to rise, smaller game studios are in a precarious position… do they follow their hearts and craft the game of their dreams and risk their entire company on its’ success? Or do they “sell out” and join a larger entity like Microsoft, Sony, or EA so they can develop titles with a higher level of security but far less autonomy?

For a brief few months, it looked like Tango Gameworks had successfully threaded the needle with their release of Hi-Fi Rush, a game that checked all of the boxes of a smaller, independent title with massive creativity while being safely launched under the shadow of Xbox’s massive wingspan on their GamePass service. It was all going so well… until it wasn’t. Despite all of the massive accolades that Hi-Fi Rush was piling up and even Microsoft’s acknowledgment that the game exceeded all internal metrics that should have kept the studio safe, Tango Gameworks was closed down for good along with several other internal studios in yet another sad chapter in the ongoing saga of gaming industry layoffs. While every job loss is sad and unfortunate, it is even harder to make sense of an entire studio shutting down when they seemed to have done everything right. Tango Gameworks made a fantastic game, it was well-received as both a critical and measurable success, and they were even under the protection of Xbox as one of their internal studios… just one of these factors alone should have made them immune to the layoff curse. All three combined should have set them up for many years of developing additional projects as well as the inevitable sequels that success usually generates. Instead, they tasted the unearned, bitter fruit of shutdown and were left wondering how it all went wrong when they did everything right.

When a studio releases a broken title, mistreats their employees, or doesn’t behave as good stewards of their resources, it is understandable that they would face the ramifications of those missteps… but it is REALLY hard to make sense of a situation where none of those challenges are in play. And in the life of a believer in Christ, this can lead to more than just disappointment… it can cause us to question our faith. Let’s keep it real… when we make a sinful decision, live our lives selfishly, or choose to follow our own wisdom instead of His, we should EXPECT for things to go horribly wrong. Those are called consequences, and they are both earned and deserved (Romans 6:23). But in those situations when we have faithfully trusted in the Lord and obediently followed His guidance and we STILL can’t seem to catch a break, those are much harder to understand. So let’s try to find some answers in the life and times of one of the most well-known figures of Biblical history, someone who certainly endured more than their fair share of ups and downs… King David.

In 1 Samuel 16, David bursts onto the scene as a new hero poised to take the mantle of king of Israel… there was just one small problem. Israel already HAD a king, and since kings only lost their position when they lost their lives, the existing king would not take kindly to having his successor already pre-selected this early in his career. David enjoyed some incredible early success in his life, being anointed as the future king at a young age (1 Samuel 16:13), having enough musical skills to have a standing position as the king’s personal harpist in the palace (1 Samuel 16:17-23), possessing enough combat skills to survive battles with larger predators like lions and bears (1 Samuel 17:34-37), and carrying the divine protection of the Lord as he defeated the enemy giant Goliath as well as led the army of Israel to multiple battlefield victories (1 Samuel 17-18). Things were definitely looking up for David… he was even given the king’s very own daughter as his wife (1 Samuel 18:27) and the king’s firstborn son was his best friend (1 Samuel 18:1-4). But even though David was doing everything right and seemed to have all the indications that his star was on the rise, things were about to come crashing down HARD for him.

In just a few short months, David’s whole world flipped upside-down as the king tried to murder him (SEVERAL times) and he narrowly escaped from the palace with his life and the clothes on his back… he went from Israel’s most beloved bachelor to living life on the run as public enemy number one. Keep in mind that David had not done anything to deserve any of these challenges… He had remained faithful to the Lord, his king, and his people throughout these trials. For the next several years David lived in caves and squeaked out an existence as a mercenary for hire, just trying to stay one step ahead of the vengeful king that he had never even wronged. Even when the opportunity to take King Saul’s life and end this nightmare was presented to him, David refused to take a shortcut past his current painful situation if it meant that he would compromise on his faith. But it was during this time period that something important happened that wouldn’t have happened any other way… David drew closer to the heart of the Lord and wrote many of the Psalms that still stand to this day as some of the most relatable chapters of the entire Bible.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord, who spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said:

Psalm 18:1-6 I will love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies. The pangs of death surrounded me, and the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears.

David wasn’t being punished during his time of persecution… he was being purified (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). He was gaining the wisdom and patience that wouldn’t have ever been exposed to in a place of comfort and ease in the king’s palace (James 1:2-3). Over the years of hardship that David endured, he was being groomed by the Father who had never forgotten him for the throne that he would one day occupy… and these times of bitter testing produced fruit like Psalm 23 that every follower of Christ has tasted, providing us with the encouragement that we needed as we walk through our own valleys of the shadow of death.

Psalm 23:1-6 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Just as Tango Gameworks learned the hard way with their release of their universally beloved and massively successful title “Hi-Fi Rush”, sometimes we can do everything right and still end up with everything going horribly wrong. The blessed life that the Father has promised us does not mean we are going to live a life free from hardship, loss, or pain… the very Lord whose footsteps we are walking in was described as a “Man of sorrows, familiar with suffering” (Isaiah 53:3). He didn’t do anything wrong either… but the path of suffering Christ walked was the only path to saving all of us. In our Christian lives, there will certainly be times that we experience hardship and grief that is of our own making… but there will ALSO be many times that we endure suffering and pain when we did everything exactly the way He told us to do it. And in these moments, the question we must ask ourselves is not “God, why is this happening to me?”, but “God, what Psalm should I be writing in this time of trial and heartache? What lasting legacy can only be created through my faithfulness in this fire?” Let’s deny our undeserved setbacks and disappointments the opportunity to determine what song we sing… Paul and Silas didn’t let their prison shut down their worship service, Daniel didn’t stop praying in the lion’s den, and David didn’t stop writing psalms even though he had to craft them in a dark, dirty cave. We choose our responses, not our circumstances… so let’s light up whatever dark place we are currently occupying with the gifts that the Lord has given us. We will often find that the soil that has been watered by the tears from our deepest, undeserved disappointments is the only place that this particular flower would ever bloom.

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