Steve Jobs and the Bible
Excerpt from Proverbs 3:1-12 (The Message)
"Trust the Lord from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; God's the one who will keep you on track."
Reflection by William C. Green
Why worry about the future? We can't do anything about it anyway. Few can get away with this attitude anymore. Too much is at stake with our children's future, our financial well-being, and our national and personal safety and security, not to mention that of those far less fortunate than we are.
These are the circumstances God's people often faced. Resignation was unnerving and optimism was no option under the dominion of Pharaoh, Babylonia, and Rome and their recent counterparts in systems of slavery and ongoing discrimination.
What keeps God's people on track, or gets them back on track, is trust. This is something like what Steve Jobs meant when he said, "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards and trust that the dots will connect again. This approach has never let me down." The trust the Bible commends is based on "looking backwards." Memory is the basis of hope.
Overwhelmed right now it's easy to forget what our own life shows us. How many times have we faced hard times, hard feeling, or loss; how many times has the world itself been on the brink of one disaster or another?
There's no guarantee that somehow things will work out. We're not spared responsibility to help make sure they do. But the memory of God's faithfulness in the past is also the promise of God's faithfulness in the future, whatever it holds. It's our "strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow."
Prayer
God, our trust and hope are in you. When our faith falters may your faithfulness make us strong. Amen.
Excerpt from Proverbs 3:1-12 (The Message)
"Trust the Lord from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; God's the one who will keep you on track."
Reflection by William C. Green
Why worry about the future? We can't do anything about it anyway. Few can get away with this attitude anymore. Too much is at stake with our children's future, our financial well-being, and our national and personal safety and security, not to mention that of those far less fortunate than we are.
These are the circumstances God's people often faced. Resignation was unnerving and optimism was no option under the dominion of Pharaoh, Babylonia, and Rome and their recent counterparts in systems of slavery and ongoing discrimination.
What keeps God's people on track, or gets them back on track, is trust. This is something like what Steve Jobs meant when he said, "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards and trust that the dots will connect again. This approach has never let me down." The trust the Bible commends is based on "looking backwards." Memory is the basis of hope.
Overwhelmed right now it's easy to forget what our own life shows us. How many times have we faced hard times, hard feeling, or loss; how many times has the world itself been on the brink of one disaster or another?
There's no guarantee that somehow things will work out. We're not spared responsibility to help make sure they do. But the memory of God's faithfulness in the past is also the promise of God's faithfulness in the future, whatever it holds. It's our "strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow."
Prayer
God, our trust and hope are in you. When our faith falters may your faithfulness make us strong. Amen.
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