Mike Paschall . com

First let me extend my condolences to Steve’s family, close friends, the Apple family and those of you who feel the weight of this reality because you’ve never really ever had any computer other than an Apple product.

Richard Rohr’s last truth of the Five Points of Spiritual Initiation is a simple point:  YOU ARE GOING TO DIE.  Understanding the ending while still at the beginning of your life brings a sobriety like none other.  It sounds utterly ridiculous to even mention it, but funerals are wake up calls to the living.  I’ve stood in hundreds of pulpits, behind flower draped caskets to talk about the person who once lived and loved on this planet.  The cause of some of those funerals were tragic and horribly induced.  Some were merciful.   I scanned some pictures on the Apple site to see what this cancer had done to Steve.  I’m thinking that Steve was probably ready to go.

Death will come to us all.  It does not depress me.  In fact, it does quite the opposite.  It motivates me to love deeper, hug harder, tell the truth more consistently about what my family and friends mean to me.  I try to look longer and deeper and not withhold what is in within my power to give.  I suspect that the generation that I currently work with will take the loss of Steve Jobs the hardest.  Superheroes in funny Spandex exist only in the movies.  In real life, we probably need to surface more often from out of our narcissistic smokey haze, for the refreshing air of selfless living.  If life isn’t about me, then we should not allow our life to be about me.  Allowing rejection to label us, control us or keep us in compulsive tailspins is ridiculous.  Even with all of the crappy baggage we sometimes carry around with us, God is still good.  It all ends eventually.   So today and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next,  we should make some choices to live the reality that God is still good.  There are no guarantees on how long we get to live and however long it is, it goes by extremely fast.  We need to “get” this, not just in our head, but soberly convinced in our heart.  That is what will propel us to manifest the good in our life at every opportunity.

-MDP-