Steve Jobs

Like everybody else I was saddened by Steve Jobs’ death. I appreciate the way that he pioneered to make computers and phones look and work better. Even if you don't use Apple products, you have to acknowledge that almost all of our digital equipment now aspires to the style and quality that Steve Jobs promoted – and is better for it. The worldwide outpouring of grief over the death of Apple’s entrepreneur and spokesman has, however,been fascinating in its extent and intensity. Of course, in turning round Apple, Jobs was a financial success (very much a rarity these days) but the response is surely based on more than that. What is clear is that the man inspired confidence and belief in a way that very few other people in our time have done.

I believe Steve Jobs inspired confidence because he knew what he was doing and he believed in it. We live in difficult times, with great problems, yet one of the characteristics of our leaders is ironically that they do not seem to lead. Instead they appear merely to react to events and then often in the most uncertain manner. Steve Jobs was different; the image that he presented was of a man who knew exactly what he was doing and precisely where he was going. He has been universally described as a ‘visionary’ and he was that; in an age of cynicism and doubt people responded to his supreme confidence and hope with reverence and respect.

Steve Jobs also inspired belief. He may have been a visionary but he never openly proclaimed exactly what his vision was. At its heart was surely that all-too-common hope, that ‘technology will fix all our problems’. He was the finest spokesperson around for the widespread dream that with electronic wizardry (and elegant design) the problems of the human species can be solved. Actually, that is a vision so unrealistic that it is rarely expressed in full. We all know in our hearts that the problems of humankind are much deeper. Yet it is to Steve Jobs’ credit that when he strode the stage holding up his latest innovation, you could, however briefly, believe that all the world truly needed was a newer and glossier phone.

Ultimately, I sense Steve Jobs was seen as a prophet, a Digital Moses, a Messiah of Technology for our secular and unstable age. But he died at the age of 56 (just 3 years older than me). As the Psalmist observed and prayed,

LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
Remind me that my days are numbered – how fleeting my life is.
You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.
(Psalm 30:3-5)

Indeed, our lives here on earth are ‘but a breath’ and a reminder to all of us not just to fulfil our potential while we are here on earth – which Steve Jobs obviously did – but to live our lives in the light of eternity. And as I frequently say, if we want to receive God’s invitation for forgiveness, new life and a hope beyond death we need to go via King’s Cross.