One of my favorite voices in music has fallen silent. This song is from a film that didn’t get any rave reviews, but is nevertheless one of my favorites. (Put Denzel and Whitney in a film and I’m in.) It is also a song that is key to my own prayer life right now.
Biographies are probably my favorite genre to read. I received the new Jobs biography as a gift for my birthday, so it was a match made in heaven.
I am not an Apple fanatic/devotee, etc. We owned a Mac desktop (which did not give me the “Hallelujah” experience everyone raved about, but it was still a good machine) and my wife owns a Mac laptop. My youngest son scowls at me for always bringing PC products into our house. When he has to use our family laptop with Windows 7 he acts like he’s slumming.
That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the Jobs biography. He was definitely a visionary. His work has changed technology for the future.
Isaacson pulls no punches. It was hard reading about Jobs’s tremendous character flaws knowing his family is still around and the world is reading about their father/husband in a not so favorable light. But, that was a Jobs’s request, so the biography is out and this view is definitely a warts and all approach.
THE GOOD
Without a doubt, Jobs was incredibly intense. His incredible focus led him to create products that were highly integrated and flowed well as a product. It wasn’t just about a nice looking design. It was about great function within that design.
The saying goes, “Nature loves simplicity.” That was how Isaacson described Jobs’s mind. Jobs had to keep things clean, simple, beautiful.
This put Jobs in direct confrontations with an “open source” world. Early on he took on Microsoft over that view. Today it’s Android, Google, Facebook, etc. Jobs preferred a closed system so everything functioned better.
His intensity gave him the ability to focus. He could filter out distraction easily. (He also filtered out tasks he needed to do, but didn’t deem them important, which led to problems.) His focus, however, is what saved Apple. It more than saved Apple. It is the most dominant company in America in terms of net worth. Had he not come back in 1997, Apple would be an asterick in American technological history.
Isaacson had this great quote: “Was he smart? No, not exceptionally. Instead, he was a genius.”
History may put him with Edison and Ford as the great innovators of certain eras.
THE BAD
The same traits that led to good things also led to bad things.
Because he was so intense he also saw everything in stark, almost bi-polar terms. Something was the best idea in the world, or it was a piece of junk. (Not his words. I can’t print his words on a blog that has “Jesus” in the title.)
If he didn’t like something (which was most of the time initially) he let the person know. But he didn’t stop there. He would humiliate them if possible.
The upside (if you can call it that) is that Apple has attracted strong personalities. They learned early on how to handle Jobs’s abuse and hurled it right back at him. My question is this: Do we really need to live that way to be successful?
While he had great focus, the downside to that focus was he wanted to build his product his way without regard to the end user. Granted, he could actually see ahead of the user. That’s great vision. However, there was a part of him others would describe as almost a disdain for the end user. He didn’t trust the end user to know what they wanted.
One reviewer said this, “There’s a lot of thoughtfulness and smarts that went into the design (of the iPad). But there’s also a palpable contempt for the owner. Buying an iPad for your kids isn’t a means of jump-starting the realization that the world is yours to take apart and reassemble; it’s a way of telling your offspring that even changing the batteries is something you have to leave to the professionals.” (Let the Apple fans begin their rants now. Maybe that will spike my blog view count. 
)
His intensity and focus was great for Apple, but it didn’t transfer to his personal life. His Zen training gave him focus for the job, but it never transferred to his personal life. (There is a lot I could riff on here about Buddhism and the power of transformation in Christ, but I will hold off.)
Jobs had personal demons chasing him his entire life. He was highly emotional, often crying in front of board members, other CEOs, corporate executives, etc. He was easily offended when he got bad press.
Adopted as a baby, he may have dealt with issues of abandonment, but he himself abandoned a daughter early in his life. (Things worked out later. Sort of.)
He never had a sense of inner serenity. Right to the end he was venomous toward the Android platform. He just couldn’t let things go.
THE REWARD
There is a bumper sticker that says, “Well behaved women rarely make history.”
Modify that to “Well behaved humans rarely make history” and it’s really true. Jobs was not a nice guy. But he changed the world of technology, and thus our world.
His vision and intensity has led to a great company, great products, and great ideas that help change the world.
The book is very well written and, while quite thick at over 500 pages, a fairly quick read.
Isaacson is honest in his assessments. Millions will disagree with some of his conclusions.
It won’t influence my decisions one way or the other to buy an Apple product in the future. I just like good biographies and this is a good one.
I have no way to organize a “Top Ten” list of any sort. Even trying to remember something 11 months ago is a challenge for me!
So… Top Events, Books, Movies, Etc. of 2011
– Game 6 of the World Series. Just a classic.
– Josiah graduates high school.
– The Arab Spring.
– NIV 2011
– Common English Bible
– Captain America
– The demise of Osama bin Laden (let the handwringing angst begin among my liberal friends, but this is a top event no matter how you slice it).
– The demise of Muammar Qadaffi (see above).
– The demise of Kim Jong Il (see above). (Come on! It’s a trifecta!)
– The scandal of Penn State
– We seem to be having a bad year…
– The King Jesus Gospel (shout out to Scot McKnight)
– Did I mention Game 6 of the World Series?
– Death of Steve Jobs
I am far too random and know I miss far too much.
The great list I could have is I have an incredible family to be thankful for, a great church where I pastor, and great students where I teach.
It’s been a blessed 2011. Now onto the end of the world in 2012.
The old adage is “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.”
We seem to always be drawn to someplace other than here. We visit other places, which is a good idea, but then we get all nostalgic and think, “Wow! Wouldn’t it be great to just be here?”
We often forget about the place we are and what draws us to that place.
Our family was trying to sell my nephew on moving to Minneapolis. He commented, “Wow. You guys sound like people from Paris or New York.”
I was happy to hear that. I don’t live in Paris or New York. I live in Minneapolis and (get this) I love it.
So, tell me…
What is great about your place? If you had to brag on it to someone NOT from where you live, what would you say to BRAG on it. (If you don’t like it… move somewhere you love THEN tell me about it!) 
Michael Hyatt has a tremendous post on being a “hero” today. It’s worth your time reading.
A couple of things I needed to hear:
Stop complaining about a lack of resources. Has God called me to do what I am doing? Then he knows how to get it funded!
Be in the moment and act.
Good challenges for today!
Imagine you are in the thick of the Christmas party season. You’re doing the festive tour of parties. The economy seems to be ticking up, spirits are buoyed by the holiday spirit, and you found that big screen plasma on Black Friday and decided you could use it as a gift to yourself. Life is starting to feel much better.
At one particular party you’re going through the buffet line and loving the little snack crackers and cheese. As you find a group of people to talk to, you notice someone just a bit off to the side. He doesn’t seem to be in a great mood. Being the holiday season, you naturally want to include people and try to cheer them up. Going over you introduce yourself and say something light like, “What a great party, huh?”
And he responds:
4 Hear this, you who trample
on the needy and destroy
the poor of the land,
5 saying,
“When will the new moon
be over so that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath
so that we may offer wheat for sale,
make the ephah smaller,
enlarge the shekel,
and deceive with false balances,
6 in order to buy the needy for silver
and the helpless for sandals,
and sell garbage as grain?”
To which you turn around and shout out to no one in particular: “Okay, who invited Amos to the party?”
Prophets don’t come only in times of doom and gloom. They come when the economy does pretty good as well. When everyone is feeling pretty good about themselves, the prophet tends to plug in the spiritual diagnostic machine and say, “Whoa. We have a problem here.”
Let’s not be calloused in our holiday spirit. Let’s not forget the power of the Kingdom and the urgency of the Kingdom message. It is to proclaim the good news to the poor (and that’s not just in spirit) and set the captives free.
Think about expanding your giving this year. Instead of giving someone something they really don’t need this year, how about giving them the gift of honoring them by giving to those in need? I have been so honored when people give to another organization on my behalf.
One organization is Kiva. They lend out small amounts of money to business start-ups all over the world. Those owners will actually pay back those loans! Then, you get to 
invest in someone else.
My favorite project right now is the Eliminate Project. Through our Kiwanis organization and UNICEF we are getting tetanus shots to the neediest areas of the world, effectively wiping out a problem for mothers and their babies in the world. This is a project I am REALLY excited about.
Let’s not forget the margins of our world!
What are your projects? Where would you have people give on your behalf?
SPECIAL NOTE: I am looking for good ideas for generosity on this post. SOOOO… if we can get at least ten good organizations to give to (and you can tell me why), I will pick from this post to give away one of the Common English Bibles I’ve been granted to give away, AND, I will pick one of those projects to give personally to (though I’m not loaded like Bill Gates).
Let’s give!
I have long been a fan of the written note. Technology has stripped that from me far too much. I need to sit down and jot a note much more than I do.
Today in my mailbox at the school where I teach were two hand written thank you notes. Those will feed my soul for a week!
This week seems to be a reflection on the quiet desperation people may have in their lives. The quote from Thoreau mentions the song we have in our hearts.
I want the song within me to be sung. The song of the King needs to be released. It’s a joy when that happens. I love seeing it when the song is being released from others. When we choose not to live in quiet desperation, but allow the dream to come alive, it’s a beautiful thing.
Last night I watched people live their dreams. My youngest son helped put together a benefit concert for the Invisible Children project. With his friend, they invited young singers to give their time and talent to help raise money for a cause. My son is releasing his song, even though he is still in high school. Their efforts raised over $600 through inviting high school and college age kids (along with a few parents) to join them at a coffee house and listen to some great music.
The young artists who sang last night are living their dreams as well. One you will want to pay attention to over the next few years is Nicole Serrano. She has one CD out (that she produced in college) and is getting ready to record another one. She is living out her passions and the song is not going to die with this young lady!
We need to live out our passions. We need to hang around other people with that are living out their passions. No more quiet desperation! Let the song out!
The quote I reflected on yesterday from Thoreau was this:
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.
Are we going to the grave with a song still in our hearts? Are we going to the grave with a work of art still waiting to be formed? Is there a symphony to be composed? A book to be written? A song to be sung? Music to be formed? A film to write?
What is the dream that is in you? What is that God-given gift that this world really needs to hear? Don’t let the song go to the grave with you.
