Apple Bite

Today's passage:  Mark 8:36
     "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

     Innovator.  Visionary.  Entrepreneur.  Technology Genius.  Inventor.  These are only a few descriptors I have heard, referring to Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, Inc.  His products have changed our world.  His death was not a huge surprise, his battle with cancer no big secret.  As with anyone who passes on from this life, I am sad for his family.  I also wonder about his eternal future.  He was once quoted in the Summer 1993 edition of the Wall Street Journal as saying:

"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."

     I have no doubt he was able to go to bed at night knowing he had done something wonderful in this world, I just wonder how much peace he had about the next.  I researched many quotes he gave over the years of his life, some for which I could not find the sources.  Here are some quotes attributed to him:

     "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.  Don't be trapped by dogma--which is living with the results of other people's thinking.  Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice..."  (Taken from a Stanford University Address in 2005)

     "I want to put a ding in the universe."  (I could not find the source.)

     "Here's to the crazy one, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes...the ones who see things differently they're not fond of rules...You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things...they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."  (I could not find the source.)

     "We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas."  PBS series, Triumph of the Nerds (1996)

     "Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards.  So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.  You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.  This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."  (Stanford University Address, 2005)

     "I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates."  Newsweek, October 29, 2001

     "We want to stand at the intersection of computers and humanism."  (I could not find the source.)

     It may seem heartless to post about the death of a man who may not have known God, or if he knew Him, only in a "He might be out there" sort of way.  I do not write this to bring pain or judgement or criticism.  I just think that when anyone who we deem important passes from this life, it is important to take stock in our own lives, and examine for what or for whom we are living.  As testimonials poured in on the news stations, one image particularly caught my attention.  I could not get the image to embed here, but I have provided the link,  http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=8380876, if you are interested in looking at it.  The very last image of this almost three minute news segment arrested me.  It was something I had not thought about before.  If you choose not to check out the link, I will describe it as best as I can.  Imagine a black background with a black Apple logo.  Just behind this is a white glow appearing from behind the logo with white writing on the black apple.  It is almost as if Jobs is speaking to us from the afterlife.  Somehow that glowing apple reminded me of something.  Although the idea for the logo itself is attributed to Isaac Newton under the apple tree, a more religious icon came to my mind.  A bite out of an apple.  What Bible story does that most frequently reference?  Of course, I would be talking about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  The Bible does not say that the fruit was an apple, but many of the artistic renderings picture just that.  I know Apple's CEO was not making any kind of reference to God or the Bible when he commissioned this logo, but isn't it a little ironic, that everything always points back to God?  The thought of what the bite from the apple symbolizes may have more significance than even he knew.  I have no way of knowing whether this innovative engineer is in Heaven or Hell.  I pray that as he closed his eyes on this earth for one last time, that he uttered a salvation prayer, if he had never done so before in his life.  From all the quotes of his life, it doesn't seem that he ever gave acknowledgement to the God of the universe.  He may have changed our world, but he has no power over the next.
   In an All Things Digital Conference on May 30, 2007, Steve Jobs was talking about how the ITunes software caused Apple to be the largest developer for Microsoft Windows.  Here is what he said:

     "It's like giving ice water to somebody in hell!"

     Let's pray that this was not a prophetic statement for the man himself.  The verse at the top of the post is my husband's favorite.  It really gets to the heart of what life is all about.  We might have creative leanings, we may have ingenious ideas, but if we never give credit to the Creator who put those ideas and dreams in us, we have this life only, and nothing in the next.  The life after this is eternal, I think I would rather be investing in that.

Planning

Today's passage:  John 12:1-11/Matthew 26:6-13/Mark 14:3-9
     I have never been much of a goal-setter. I know people who have a timeline of exactly what they want to happen in five, ten, fifteen years.  This is not a bad thing, I am not being critical.  I should do more of it myself.  I just know I would get very frustrated when I looked at my goals and found that I was nowhere near to reaching them.  It is my goal to become a published writer someday.  I have taken very small steps towards that goal, but if I had set a timeline on it, I am probably about 10 years past it.  It is frustrating, but I would not change the events that have kept me from that goal.  Having three kids in that timeline is a pretty good excuse for not getting it done, and if God gave me three more and pushed my timeline further down the road, I would be perfectly happy with that (don't tell my husband I said that).  Sometimes our goals are not in God's timeline.  Sometimes our goals are not even in God's plan for our lives.  Maybe I've learned to accept that to the point that I just do not set any goals at all, which is not really a good thing either.        
     When reading only the verses in John, it would seem that this event is taking place at Lazarus' house.  Lazarus is sitting at the table (I always picture him at the head of the table), Martha, as always, is serving, and Mary comes from her bedroom with this stark white box.  This is the picture I have always had in my head.  In the other passages of Scripture, Mary's name is not specifically given, so I always forget that she is the one who has made this great sacrifice.  This is not how it happened at all.  They are not at Lazarus' house, they are in Simon the leper's house.  In the other Scriptures, it does not appear that Simon is present (this would make sense since lepers had to live out of the city).
      I heard an excellent sermon once about the fact that they were in Simon the leper's house.  After Lazarus had died, it might stand to reason that if the man of the house was no longer living, his property would have been sold off and the sisters would have to find someplace new to live.  Since Simon is not mentioned in the passage here, just that it was his house, it would seem logical to think that if Simon was still leprous and living outside the city, if he had no family to inhabit his home, he might have rented his home out to another family.  This would make Mary's act of worship even greater because she might have been able to use this perfume as payment for another property.  Verse 2 says "...but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him."  This wording makes it sound as if Lazarus might be a guest too. If he and both of the sisters are visiting in this home, than something here really struck me.  In the past, I have always envisioned Mary, overcome with devotion,  fetching her box and spilling its precious contents upon Christ.  But if they are a guest in this home, she would have brought this box with her.  That means she was not just overcome, she had planned this.  She had given this careful thought, and had decided that she was going to surrender something to Christ. 

Mary Anoints Jesus' Feet--Taken from The Children's Friend (Part 4)
By Mrs. Adelaide Bee Evans
 Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1911, 1928

Have I considered the things I should surrender to my Lord?  Or do I wait until I just can't stand it anymore and I'm bowled over by emotion before I give up the things I should already have given up?  Goal-setting is a great thing.  Have I ever set any goals as to what I want God to do in my life?  Have I ever told the Lord He can have something before He even asks for it?  There would have been nothing wrong if Mary was living in this house and did suddenly decide to do this for Jesus, it may have happened that way.  But God should not always have to ask us for what is already His.  He should not have to break us down to the point that we are finally willing to surrender.  Remember, just a chapter earlier, Mary had lost a brother and then had him resurrected.  She could have waited for another tragic event to take place before she decided to make this sacrifice.  She could have held back, resisted the Spirit's leading, and held on to her valuable package.  She chose to give it up, but it took some heartache to get there.  Maybe God could spare us some heartache if we would evaluate some things in our life beforehand and put them at His feet before He makes the suggestion.
     Notice that she was not only willing to surrender the box, but everything in it.  I may say to God, "Here I am, Lord" but if I don't yield everything in me, I am only giving Him part, not all.  My God deserves all that I have to give.  He deserves so much more than what I do for Him.  Lord Jesus, help me to examine my life today, and see what You want from me before You have to ask for it.  Let me surrender things before You have to take them.  Let me make plans and set goals on how to serve You better before having to be told.