A Better Job than Jobs

I’ve been doing a little ruminating on the life and death of Steve Jobs and it’s only just now occurring to me how much this guy’s work has impacted my life. Driving to work today, I listened to a podcast – a word added to our lexicon to describe spoken word content placed on iTunes to be downloaded to and played back on iPods. My iPhone is like an appendage to me. It keeps my contacts, my calendar and innumerable other apps and digital helpers. And when I write a sermon or an email, or a blog post like this one, I do so on an Apple laptop.

Jobs’ design and innovations are everywhere. And the work he’s done at Apple has been so profound most people totally forget the work he did at Pixar Studios, which set the gold standard for excellence in animation worldwide and whose characters are known to every one of us.

Without question, this is a guy who changed the world.

But I think you can do better. Here’s why:

Every computer, iPhone, iPad, iPod and iWhatever – all stacked up in one huge pile… every dollar ever spent on iTunes… every movie ever made by Pixar and all the earnings of everyone who worked on them and saw them – when we separate life into the categories of ‘temporary’ and ‘eternal,’ these things all fall squarely within the ‘temporary’ box. As profound as his influence has been, 100 years from now most of it will be a footnote in history.

There was a time when no one could have imagined that the T-Model Ford wouldn’t be the king of the automobile for all of eternity. Look at the amazing progression of the automobile and you’ll see how quickly things change.

This is not to downplay what Jobs has done. It’s pretty amazing, really. And I’m sure that by the time my kids are in high school, they’ll be taking class trips to visit the Steve Jobs Museum, wherever it may be.

But that’s it.

We are born, we live and we pass on. Much of what we do here won’t matter. Even our finest efforts, having reached the pinnacle of their potential, will end up in a museum. Unless we do what we do to change eternity for others. Then, your effort matters forever. It literally makes an eternal difference.

Do I believe that God is glorified in all good art? Yes I do. But I also believe that all the good art in the world doesn’t glorify God as much as just one of His children deciding that their life is meant for something more than worldly accomplishment.

You, my friend, were designed with far greater stuff than the iPod.

Live accordingly.