By any human measure, Steve Jobs’ life was an incredible success. Co-founder of Apple, former owner of Pixar, a visionary who transformed computing, the music industry, mobile phones and much more.
And then he died, aged only 56.
Jobs was suffering from pancreatic cancer, and his death at such a relatively early age is deeply sad. And yet in Steve Jobs’ Stamford University commencement address in 2005, he was able to say:
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
“Follow your heart”. Jobs’ success was due in a very large part to his sense of vision. He didn’t want to make “me too” products, to follow existing trends and successes, to be a slave to market research. He said, “For something this complicated, it’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
But if that’s true of computers or iPods, then what about life? Will “following your heart” really make you happy? Perhaps when it comes to what really matters, we don’t know what we want until we’re shown what we need.
In Luke 12:13-21, Jesus told the story of a rich man:
The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’
But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God.
Jesus tells us that what really matters is being “rich towards God” rather than storing up things for himself. Unlike the man in the story, Jobs wasn’t concerned simply with making money. He famously said:
Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.
But while we are probably quick to recognise the emptiness of chasing mere money, profit and riches, we perhaps fail to recognise that pursuing achievement and excellence can be just as meaningless.
Trying to “do something wonderful”, leads to frustration, anxiety and worry as much as it does to satisfaction, even if you actually succeed. “You can’t take it with you” doesn’t just apply to your bank balance, but also to your CV, whether you’ve built a business empire, invented great devices or created incredible works of art, or anything else.
Jesus came to show us what we really need. If we simply “follow our hearts”, we risk missing out on what will truly satisfy. He came to tell us that our deepest needs and desires can only be met by being rich towards God. Instead of worrying, even about the basics of life, what we will eat or what we will wear, he tells us to “Instead seek God’s kingdom, and these things will be added to you” (Luke 12:31).
But what does it mean to “be rich towards God” and to “seek God’s kingdom”? How do we do that? It means seeking and treasuring God as Father and King, finding our meaning and purpose in life in following him. God is revealed to us in Jesus. Jesus said “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father”. Jesus died on the Cross for us, showing us God’s self-giving love. It’s only when we see Jesus that we see what we really need, what will really satisfy.
God’s kingdom is all-encompassing, for all of life – because God is a loving and righteous, just and generous, we are called to live in the same way. Luke 12:33-34 tells us,
Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
When we find our treasure in God, we have a meaning and purpose that demands our whole life, but will outlast death. Jesus isn’t another app for the smartphone of life; he’s a whole new operating system, who transforms our lives infinitely more radically than the smartest new gadget or device.
I’m not criticising or condemning Steve Jobs; I admire his achievements, and wouldn’t presume to know where he stands before God. My prayers are with his family and friends.
But as the world marks the death of a man rich in vision and conviction, we would all do well to consider Jesus’ question, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”