iReflections

When Steve Jobs resigned from Apple awhile back, a prominent pastor who I follow on Twitter wrote a post that has really stuck with me. It said something along the lines of "the next time you check your iPhone or do work on your iMac take time to thank God for Steve Jobs and to pray for him." It hit me because it's something I'm bad at... remembering to pray for people outside of my immediate sphere of relationships, and also remembering to thank God for them. 

When it comes to Steve Jobs, there is a lot to be thankful for, and I might emphasize that this is especially the case for people involved in any sort of technical ministry. I remember two years ago as I was starting my new position with NKMB I went to my first worship conference in Toronto. I swear I have never seen so many macbooks in one place - it's like everyone had one, and for good reason. When it comes to music recording, especially for worship leaders in small churches, Apple made quality multitrack recording simple and affordable for the first time. Yes there were always ways before, but suddenly it could be done well and it could be done for a modest budget. As a worship leader, there's also the magic of iTunes. Before it's existence, the only legal way of acquiring new worship music (legally) was to spend hours in music stores listening to cd's before purchasing entire albums, sometimes for only one or two songs. With iTunes, everything changed, and I can do my music research from my office and only buy what's needed while still supporting the artists. As well, independent worship artists can now get their music out to mass distribution on their own, and receive payment.

I could go on and on... I've been using apple products for various parts of my ministry positions for the past 14 years, from editing camp videos to web production, to music recording, to running the entire technical end of our church services and posting sermons on video.  My point though is not as much about the specifics, but about the reminder. I am thankful that God created Steve Jobs. He was a human being, created as we all are, in God's image and given by God's grace amazing creativity and the ability to make his dreams a reality like few others have been able. 

My prayer will continue to be that in his final days he found truth in God, and my prayers will surround his family. You see, sometimes I forget that God is also the God of everything else. I get so caught up in my own little reality, and the small number (considering the population of the world) of people that I associate with, that I forget to look at the bigger picture. My prayers for someone I don't know are just as important as my prayers for a close friend. My thankfulness for God's creation of a person I've never met is just as important as my thankfulness God's creation of my family.  Maybe this has been nothing but a few rambling thoughts, but I was really struck by this idea this evening as I read about his passing and started to reflect on his influence. Thank You God for all you did through Steve Jobs, and thank You that it has been able to be used for Your glory. Amen.