Many of us have good reason to appreciate the creative genius and entrepreneurial spirit of Steve Jobs, who just passed into eternity. God highly endowed this man with common grace and we can only hope that in his final chapter he found true rest in God’s saving grace. Jobs was very much aware of his mortality, having overcome pancreatic cancer in 2003. He spoke movingly about it in the second half of this 2005 commencement address he gave at Stanford University (my wife’s Alma mater).
Here are a few choice quotes from his speech (transcript here):
“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. No one has ever escaped it.”
“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. ”
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”