¶ Remembering Steve
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Earlier this evening, I was at my church helping the worship team prepare for this coming Sunday’s service. I was running the iMac that we use for showing lyrics and video, and for recording the sermon. My iPhone was next to the keyboard, and it lit up to notify me of a text from a friend, which contained a solemn link.
One tap later, my heart sank. Sadness came over me. I wasn’t even sure what to think.
Steve Jobs has passed away.
I am still unsure of what to say. I’ve spent the past couple hours being busy with my duties as a daddy, getting my son to bed. Then I sat down and slowly read through my twitter timeline. Everyone — everyone — I follow is remembering Steve tonight.
Steve truly changed the world. He has left a legacy in the lives of anyone who has used a computer, whether that is Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, and the list goes on. None of it would have been the same without a young man’s vision of the future in a garage in Palo Alto in the early ‘70’s.
In 2005, Steve delivered the commencement address at Stanford, and the following is very fitting today:
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. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Seth Godin writes tonight:
It’s one thing to miss someone, to feel a void when they’re gone. It’s another to do something with their legacy, to honor them through your actions.
And Sebastiaan de With writes:
If you want to honor Steve, don’t mourn. Do your best work every day. Live your life to the fullest. Never settle. His spirit lives on.
We have nothing to lose in this life except life itself. Follow your heart. Never settle. Stay hungry. Stay foolish.