I was listening to my colleagues’ conversations a few days ago. One was telling the other about the Steve Jobs movie, and how the movie painted his character. Although he was a brilliant person, Steve had some major character defects. Steve was the co-founder of Apple, and was eventually fired from the company he started. He later created a new model computer that Apple would eventually need, and they had to re-employ him, giving him a stake in the company and the position he wanted. What I remembered in that moment was a picture I had seen of him close to the end of his life. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and became rail thin, and to the point of needing help to walk around. The thought came to me as I listened. “it’s all vanity”. I try not to be judgmental – but that was the thought that immediately popped into my head.
I also think of Mike Davis – labeled as the “World’s Grumpiest Boss”. He died a few days ago at the age of 85, but his legacy – apart from being CEO of Tiger Oil, was that of being the grumpiest boss. In one of his memo to his employees he writes, “Do not speak to me when you see me… If I want to speak to you, I will do so. I want to save my throat. I don’t want to ruin it by saying hello to all of you.” NY Time – September 25. Wow. By the way, he was a former chauffeur.
When I saw a post on Instagram the other day asking the question, “If we were to take a selfie of our character, would we be able to post it?” Wow. What a concept!
How would you like to be remembered?
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for all your blessings. Lord, help us as we go through that people will be drawn to our character and not our physical appearance – help our characters to shine through for You. Our bodies will fade with sickness and death, but it’s what we did and how we treated others that will live on, help us to be kind to others in everything we do.