David's Bucket

My wife and I are a few minutes away from boarding our flight bound for Newark airport. We hope to get into the city tonight to have dinner with a few other members of our team. If all goes according to plan, we will be in Times Square tonight.

Since July, I have run a little over 300 miles in preparation for my run through the streets of N York on Sunday.

I still can’t believe it’s here.

3 days, 12 hours, 17 minutes…

There is still time to join our support team. More info is here.

I’ve spent some time over the last week reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

I’m about halfway through the book at this point and it’s been a good read thus far.Jobs authorized this biography participating in over 40 interviews with Isaacson and giving him full control over the finished product.

The back cover describes Steve as someone, “whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.”

At the same time, as I’ve read through the first half of the book, it’s striking to read how those closest to Jobs describe what a self-centered, petty, and narcissistic man he could sometimes be. I’m waiting for the great moment of redemption. Unfortunately, I’m not sure it’s waiting for me in the chapters that follow.

I don’t think anyone can argue with the idea that Steve Jobs was a revolutionary genius, but that also brings to mind the sad truth that the products he helped create will one day become obsolete.

I’m looking forward to finishing the book, but at this point I’m reminded that I don’t buy into the idea that life is about doing great things.

To use one of Steve’s phrases, “I think different.”

The great product of our life should not be a computer or a smart phone or an animated movie.

It’s people… who we become, and who we enable and encourage others to be.

In his book, “Why: Making Sense of God’s Will,” Pastor Adam Hamilton engages the question we looked at this past weekend, “Why do my prayers go unanswered?” He finishes that chapter with the following quote from World War II Admiral Chester Nimitz.

This quote did not make it into my sermon for this weekend, but I thought is was an excellent reminder today of the meaning of prayer. Admiral Nimitz described his own prayer life in the following way.

I asked God for strength that I might achieve. I was made weak that I might learn to obey. I asked for health that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men. I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am, among all men, most richly blessed.