The Oct. 17 cover of The New Yorker magazine reflects the misplaced spiritual values of our culture. Steve Jobs is standing at the Pearly Gates with St. Peter looking up Jobs' name on an iPad.
By most indications, Jobs was a Buddhist. Like his heroes, the Beatles, he traveled to India to seek enlightenment. And a Buddhist monk, Kobun Cheno, presided over his wedding. The Bible makes it clear the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ (John 14:6). If Jobs never placed his faith in Jesus Christ, then he's still knocking on heaven's door.
But we still can learn from his life and death:
• Adoption is a great way to change the world.
Jobs was born in 1955 to an unwed mother who gave him up for adoption. His adoptive parents, Paul and Clara Jobs, welcomed him into their home and gave him a loving environment.
You can change the world by welcoming an orphan into your home.
• Making a technological impact on the world is not the same thing as making an eternal impact.
Jobs had a technological impact on our world that hasn't been seen since Thomas Edison. I'm writing this article on an Apple laptop computer, and my iPhone is on my desk downloading an app from iTunes. Bible apps have given millions of people access to the Bible on their smart phones. But in a few years—or is it months?—iPhones and iPads will be old technology, and we'll discard them for the next "new thing."
As followers of Jesus, we deal in eternal values. "The grass withers, and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever" (Isaiah 40:8).
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• Knowing you're going to die isn't the same thing as being ready to die.
In 2005, Jobs delivered the commencement address at Stanford University. He recently had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He said: "No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share."
Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies" (John 11:25).
Jobs' technological influence on everyday life will be greatly missed. But it's the life to come that matters most.
How about you? Are you making the most of your life now—and for eternity, too?
–David Dykes is pastor of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler.
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