iDeath and eLife: What Steve Jobs Discovered and Missed

Steve Jobs, as Rick Warren rightly tweeted was " the Thomas Edison" of his generation. Steve Jobs changed the way we look at the world just as Edison. Steve Wozniak, Jobs’ friend and colleague from the very beginning of his career remarked in his "tearful” interview with Associated Press that, "We lost something that we will never get back!" Steve Jobs was so unique! Everyone shared that sense of loss but will still remember Steve Jobs for the way he changed the world.


Like thousands of others, Apple computers made my life different. The first work I ever did on a computer was on an old IBM PC way back in 1986-1988 during my student days in Bangalore. It had no hard disk, it used two 5" floppy disk drives. One of the floppy disks had the OS and the word processing program. The other was for saving the documents to. The computer had no memory of any sort, we had to enter the time and date at start up. We did not know what we were going to get. I mean, the screen and the printout did not match exactly. If you forgot to close the code for bold font (which was invisible on the screen) then the entire document from that point will be in bold!


However, two years later, I was introduced to an Apple Macintosh Classic computer with a black and white screen. It had a mouse, what I saw on the screen was I what I got in the printout (WYSWYG). It could type Hebrew and Greek, the two languages that I had to use besides English. It was a great leap for me! Then a few months later, I had my own Apple-- A Macintosh LC with color monitor! Nineteen years now, I still keep it; it is still functional though I don't use it! I  had to part my ways with Apple. I could not travel with Apple any further as my iBook crashed a few years back. I changed my loyalties to Linux run on PCs. Apples turned out to be expensive. Moreover it was difficult to keep pace with the speed at which they updated the hardware and the software-- every six months something new rolled out of Steve Jobs mind to the market. However, I still am an Apple fan and hold no hatred for iPhones or iPads!


The world of technology and business hail him for his inventions; iPhone, iPad, iCloud and all that preceded these. However, I think his greatest achievement was not an invention but a discovery that he made. I would like to call it iDeath!


He disclosed that discovery when he went public after being diagnosed for pancreatic cancer in 2005. That is his discovery of the significance of death for him. He said, "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." 


However, even before that, from the very beginning of his career he had death in view. Steve Wozniak who knew him from the very beginning of his life as a computer genius and business man made another revelation about Jobs in his interview with the Associated Press. He said that Jobs told him around the time he left Apple in 1985 that he had a feeling he would die before the age of 40. Because of that, "a lot of his life was focused on trying to get things done quickly," Wozniak said.


This discovery of the significance of death for a human being defined Jobs’ life-style and his impatience for achievements. Former colleagues remember him being rude and impatient. He fired people if their answer did not satisfy him. He had no time to waste, he was on a rush. The secret seems to be that he always saw death before him, he had the end in view; he had to achieve all that he could before he reached that point.


I would like to use the metaphor of a ship on collision course to understand Steve Jobs view of life and death. He seems to have imagined that his ship will not survive the collision and will sink deep down never to raise again. Seeing the immanent death (though he lived longer than he thought he will) he was on a hurry. He was bent on achieving as much as he can before the collision happens. That is what made him brash and impatient. That sense of urgency is the secret of his achievements as well.


However, that is not the only perspective on life and death that is possible. Saint Paul saw death every day in his life. He lived a very dangerous life which he described as "we die every day" (1 Cor 15:31). Death was an every day possibility for him. He had survived shipwrecks, snake bites, robbery attempts, had fought with animals in the arena. He knew that he may drop dead any time! Though death was a daily reality for him, his view on death was very different from that of Steve Jobs.


If he saw his life as a ship, he would have seen death as a thick fog through which his ship has to pass through and not as an ice-berg that it would crash on to.While Steve Jobs could not see the other side of death, Saint Paul could see through the fog the other side of life beyond the grave.


The other side of the grave (the fog) as the Bible presents it is beautiful and radically different from one the one that we have now. The Bible describes it as a life where the perishable is turned into imperishable, and the mortal turned in to immortal. It is a life without limit: no limit on its time and no cap on its quality. That limitless length and quality is what qualifies it to be described as "Eternal Life" or eLife borrowing Steve Job’s language! (One of his flops was the eMac!).


This eLife is not a life of passivity; spent waiting for the other life. It has the same urgency that Steve Jobs maintained but for two different reasons. The first reason is that the passing through the fog is to a place from where there is no return. Whatever to be achieved in this world has to be achieved before the ship enters the fog. The second reason is that we can only predict the possibility of the fog but can’t predict how far we are from it. One day our ships will meet the fog, but none knows when. That demands that every moment has to be redeemed. There is urgency that fuels our life to achieve.


Steve Jobs has been a great achiever. His achievement was prompted by the certainty of an immanent death from which he cannot escape. That great discovery of death made him rush and gained a place with the greatest minds of our times. But he could have had the same urgency and achievements that follow from that sense of urgency with another view of life and death as well. He could have held a view which would have given him hope not only in this world but also in the world to come. It seems that he missed that perspective. His greatest achievement is the discovery of iDeath on which he could not put any controls. He missed eLife-- eternal life that Jesus offers to all who put their trust in him. If Steve Jobs had read that Book which talks about it, he would have discovered eLife.

The "AGAPE" Love

The Bible teaches us that love is a fruit of the Spirit and it has supremacy over the gifts of the Spirit. In fact Saint Paul argues that the exercise of the gifts of the Spirit is useless if devoid of love. Being devoid of love is a state of existence which can be very well described as "being nothing” (1 Cor 13:2) and such lives "gain nothing” (1 Cor 13:3).

The love mentioned in this passage is a entirely different type of love, very different from what we usually mean by it. The Greek word AGAPE is consistently used throughout the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 13, the greatest poem on love.

It was a common word for love which found a new meaning in the New Testament because of the experience of love that the writers had. Their experience was different from those who lived before their era, before Christ came in to this world to put up a magnifcient show of this special love. The translators of the Old Testament into Greek who lived about 200 years before Christ had many Greek words to choose from to translate the word, "love.” So, they chose as they thought fitting for the context of each occurance in the Hebrew bible. The word AGAPE is used for love only 20 times in the entire Old Testament in Greek though the word love comes more 500 than times! However, the New Testament writers use the word AGAPE 116 times (75 times by Paul alone) though the New Testament is only one third the size of the Old Testament! The resaon for this use is their experience of God’s love through his Son, Jesus Christ which the Hellenistic Jews missed.

This love is not a convenient love or a congenial love but a love for the most unlovable. Most of the time we love whom it is convenient to love. Inconvenience hinders such love. Haven’t you seen people break up when one of the lovers change universities or move away from the other. The distance and new circumstances becomes inconveniet for love and love ends there. AGAPE love is is not congenial. Congenial love is the love for the things that we like or for those of the same kind. Crows peck away the alien birds who enter their tree because they cannot love birds of other kind. Their love is congenial. Human beings also have the same mentality. It is easy to love people of our family, our country, of our skin colour and the like. Though, we may not hate people who are different from others, loving them demands effort.

However, the love that God displayed through his son is qualitatively quiet different from this. It is the love for the most unlovable, when they were most unlovable. In Romans 5:8 we see the nature of this love: "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” First of all Christ loved for the sinners whom God really doesn’t like at all. The Bible says, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18). However, God is willing to love us though we donot deserve his love. The New Testament writers reserved this word for that sort of love. Secondly, God loved us with his AGAPE love when we did not deserve us. God’s love for the sinners was not after their conversion to God’s children. He loves them even before that, when they "were still sinners.” Thank God that he did not say, "if you stop sinning I will try to love you.”

John, who is known as the Apostle of Love says that God was so liberal in loving us, his love was unlimited. He uses the word "lavish” to express the manner of God’s love! "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1 NIV). The most unworthy of all are the ones who are loved by this type of love.

Moreover, this love is transformative. It transforms the persons who are loved so that they look at the world and all around them with AGAPE love. This transformative power is expressed in 1 John. "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.” (1 John 3:14 ESV). "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” (1 John 3:16 ESV).

The reason for the AGAPE love is not in the object of love, but proceeds from the character of the lover. God is able to love us with the AGAPE love because he is love. We cannot love others with AGAPE love unless we are transformed by this love. That love transforms our world-views, the quality of service, and all that we do and think. That is why this love has the supremacy over all the magnificent gifts of the Spirit and display of spiritual power.

The Centurion and the Galilean: A study in authority

When a Galilean carpenter commands "Go" nobody moves; they may look at him curiously wondering if he is all right. When he beckons to someone to come they may, but not always! Nobody is under his command and he has no authority over anyone.
However, a Roman centurion is different. He has 100 soldiers under his command. When he walks in, they all stand in attention and salute him. When he commands one of them to go and fetch something he does. When he shouts 'march' they march on in an array. All of them are under his command. His words work. They can change things; they make things move!
The Roman centurion whom we find in Luke 7 was in desperate need, a need which was beyond the resources he had at hand. One of his servants was sick and no words of him will heal him. The sickness or whatever that caused that sickness was not under his authority. They won't heed his commands. He was helpless.
However, he was humble. Humility is the pre-requisite for faith. He knew higher authorities exist. He knew from his experience that authorities higher than him had higher commanding power. An officer in-charge of a legion had much higher power than a centurion.
Centurion's knowledge and experience shaped his faith. He did not want Jesus to come to his house. The reason for not taking Jesus to his house is not that it was not big enough for Jesus. The reason was simple; Jesus doesn't need to be there. His word is enough! 'But say the word, and my servant will be healed' (Luke 7:7). The article (the) on "word" is important. He meant "the word" for sickness to leave! He knew there is a word to make the army march, there is a word to make the army to retreat, so there must be a word for sickness to leave and healing to come in. The one who has authority over sickness can command using 'the word that heals.' In Jesus he recognized that authority and the power of Jesus' command.
Centurions' faith was commended because his faith came from his experience and his recognition of Jesus' authority. In Jesus he saw more than a Galilean tramp, a man of authority. In Jesus he saw a man who has authority over all sickness. That's what is called faith!

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Exonerating Jonah

We have been very unkind to Jonah. No character of the Bible has suffered so badly at the hands of Bible interpreters and preachers like this man often pictured in a long robe and a long beard. Sometimes pcitured in the belly of a huge fish! Christians and Jews of all ages are equally guilty of this. They pick up a negative image of this poor prophet from early childhood as the Sunday School teachers use their flannel graphs and tell the children not to be so disobient as this disobedient prophet! And when these children mature to adulthood they become Sunday School teachers and preachers to continue the millennial old negative propaganda against this prophet of Israel.

Jonah was not that bad! He ran away from the presence of the Lord, I agree! Probably, he did not have read Psalm 139 especially verses 7 -10 of that psalm: "Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. (Psalms 139:7-10 ESV).

Not only him, even long after him, the people of Israel thought that the presence of God was limited to certain places. This is what the Samaritan woman quizzed Jesus: "The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” (John 4:19-20). So, he thought he can get rid of this nagging God if he left the country and sailed for a far away place, beyond the reach of the Hebrew God!

Now, running away from his country to avoid the presence of God, that is a serious charge! But tell me which prophet of Israel was not fed up with this God who always demanded too much from them. Moses, complained to God many times when he was under stress, Elijah wanted to die unable to carry on, Jeremiah wept, protested, argued with God, Isaiah was despondent, the list can go on! We all are tempted to do it. It is just human.

Sleeping at the bottom of the ship while a storm was raging and every sailor was praying to his god is quite an achievement! Who can sleep peacefully amidst such a turbulance? Remember what you did when when you are 40,000 ft above the Atlantic and the pilot turned the seat-belt light on with a warning that the plane is facing turbulent weather? You made a sign of the cross and closed your eyes but were not able to sleep until the plane got back to a smooth path? Jonah was not sleeping, I think, was pondering "O God, you are here too! You got me?"

The story portrays an ordinary human being. It tells us what any prophet would do if God asks him to do something that he has never done before. Not just prophets all devout persons have limits to their patience and endurance. Jonah had reached his. That explains his behaviour.

But what I like in the story of Jonah is that he did something that many godly people normally won’t do. First of all, he knew what is wrong! He was a good troubleshooter! He told his fellow sailors that it is the hand of his God who created heaven, earth and sea! Many of us are equally good trouble shooters as well. But the difference is that Jonah not only found out what is wrong but he admitted that he is responsible for it! That many of us don't do. We normally score very low as troubleshooters, but very high as trouble-makers. Even when we succeed in locating the reason for the problem we tend to park it at somebody else's door! Taking up responsibility for the mess we created is often not in our nature. Now, I want Jonah to be exonerated at least on this ground! Long live Jonah!

Rights, Duties and Duties without Rights

We are very conscious of our rights. Students go strike for their rights so do factory workers, government staff and even in a family individuals insist on their rights, though they may not go for a sit-in.

Conflicts are bred when people insist on their rights. Two ships collided head on in the Black Sea killing hundreds of people in 1986. The reason for this tragedy was simple! Both captains insisted on their right of way and were not willing to yield! By the time they realized that they were on a collision path it was too late!

Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister once reminded his people that there are no rights without duties! People who insist on their rights often ignore that they have duties to perform. Those who ignore that obligation have no claim on rights.

However, the Bible extends the correlation between rights and duties further than an issue of priority; that is the question of right first or duty first. In 1 Corinthians 9 Saint Paul illustrates through his own life that sometimes we will have to surrender our rights for the sake of our duties.

He had every right to travel with his wife on his missionary tours. We are not sure if he was married and a widower or he was never married. Whichever way it goes, he travelled without the company of a wife. However, that was not the practice Christian circles those days. Other Apostles took their wives on their trips (1 Corinthians 9:5). As a minister of the gospel there was nothing wrong in being rewarded for his service (1 Corinthians 9:6). That was the practice of the apostles and that was also supported by the scriptures (1 Corinthians 9:13-14). However, Paul did not insist on this right also. Rather he chose to work and earn his support so that he can preach free without burdening the people to whom ministered (Acts 18:2-3). He had many such rights but he did not insist on any of them.

At least two times he states that he did not insist on his rights (1 Corinthians 9:12, 15). Why did he not insist on his rights? His reason for forfeiting his rights is that it may hinder his duty of preaching the gospel. So for the sake of his duty he would rather give up his rights.

Sometimes, preachers may become such heavy weights that smaller people may not be able to come closer to them. In such scenarios the gospel suffers. Many times inisting on our rights we lose friends, opportunities for conversation and even opportunities for service. When forfeiting our rights for the sake of gospel we don’t lose anything but make great profits by winning souls for Christ.

Bin Laden: Avenge, Revenge, Justice!

Osama Bin Laden was shot dead and buried in the Arabian Sea by the US Navy Seals. President Obama announcing the death of United States' most wanted enemy said that "Justice is done!". There were celebrations all over the United States celebrating the death of the most hated terrorist who allegedly is responsible for the death of many Americans. The excitement was so hight in some places that they did not care who really died. When the news was announced, some students who were celebrating in an American university shouted cheefully that "Obama is shot dead," not realizing the subtle difference in the two names!
There are lot of questions to be answered. First of all, what is "justice" and how justice is done?
Justice is righting wrong. Justice means that somebody has caused someone some sort of distress and that situation has to be corrected. There are many ways of righting the wrong. Restraining the person who did the wrong thing and making sure that person will not do it again is one thing. But that is the second step. Removing the disadvantage that the victim suffers is the first step. Then comes the second step of making sure that it will not happen.
When someone robs a person, the person is caught, he has to return what he has robbed. The wrong is corrected. Then the robber is restrained or corrected so that it will not happen again. However, this really doesn't apply to murders. The murderer has taken from the victim and his dear ones something he cannot return, that is life. However, the disadvantage that the victim suffers can be corrected. The ways the Old Testament deals with this is instructive. If the murder was intentional then the murderer has to pay by his life. He will be killed. If the murder was unintentional then the murderer can take refuge in one of the asylums called "cites of refuge" and spend the rest of his life there or will be caught and executed.
In both cases, justice is done by removing the disadvantages that the victim suffers. In ancient agrarian societies number mattered. The families with larger number of people were better off than smaller families. That is, the sheer number of workforce was crucial for their life, prosperity and security. When a family or clan is killed the murderer and his group gains an advantage over them. This can be corrected only by the death of a member from the family or clan of the murderer; and nobody is responsible for this other than the murderer, so his life has to be taken. By keeping the murderer in one of the cities of refuge he is restrained by participating in the life of his community. Thus "An eye for an eye" approach was a primitive form of ensuring peace and prosperity.
This clarifies the words "revenge" and "avenge". There is a huge difference between "revenge" and "avenge". Revenging is to return the evil for evil. It has no other motivation or purpose. However, "avenge" is correcting a situation and bringing justice by returning the same or similar act. Revenge is retaliation but avenging is to bring justice. The Old Testament "An eye for an eye" thinking was a avenging than revenge.
This same principle doesn't apply to modern situations. By killing the man who is responsible for the death of thousands of Shias (Saddam Hussein), or American civilians in WTC attack (Osama bin Laden) the disadvantage that the victims or their families suffer is not corrected. All that they get is the feeling that he will not be able to do it again to anyone else beside satisfying their thirst for revenge. However, there are number of other ways of making sure that he will not doing it again than killing him and revenge is not Christian at all.
Killing a person terminates not only life but opportunities for that person to be a better person in life. In Christ there is a standing invitation to all humanity to change, to shed hatred. To deny any person that opportunity is a denial of God. To conclude that a person is beyond correction is arrogance. The modern world has denied Saddam Hussein, Velupillai Prabhakaran, Bin Laden and many others that opportunity. What we have done is gross injustice to our Christian conscience!

Easter: Your Search Ends Here!

Easter settled a big question. Was Jesus a failure or not? At his arrest and crucifixion his opponents and also his disciples thought that he has failed, he is another failed Messiah of Judaism who led a popular movement duly suppressed by the Roman military power. However, when they found that the tomb was empty on the third day they knew that he was not a failure but a victor. He rose from the dead. "O death where is your victory, O death where is your sting?" Death had grip on him only for a few hours and he for ever overcame death.

However, it took some time for his disciples to come to terms with this reality. Mary and other women did not remember that he had claimed that he will rise again. They went on a wrong search at the wrong place. They were not supposed to search for him in the tomb he was buried. Because he was not going to be there on the third day. They longed to see his dead body again, but that is the wrong thing they were looking for. Many continue similar searches for truth making pilgrimages to places to find truth there but truth is not a place and cannot be found in any place. Jesus is truth and he is not be confined to any pilgrim places.

However, meeting the risen Jesus altogether changed her search and the mindset of the disciples who verified that the tomb was indeed empty. They found the linen wrapping in the grave, but did not bother to keep a few pieces of this to be venerated later. For them they have met the risen saviour and having him back to "walk with them and talk with them" is far greater than keeping some rags to venerate. When I have the reality of Jesus Christ why should they settle for something less.

Easter Sunday come with the message: Your search ends here, if you begin a walk with the risen Lord.