Did you hear about the woman who bought a wooden iPad? She paid $180 to a man in a McDonald’s parking log in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He gave her a Fedex envelope in which he had placed her purchase. After he drove away, she opened it to discover a black piece of wood etched with the familiar Apple logo.
Meanwhile, a next-generation iPhone 5 prototype has gone missing. It was apparently left by an Apple employee in a San Francisco bar named Cava 22. You may remember that an iPhone 4 prototype was left in a Redwood City, California bar in April 2010. Now another employee has committed a similar gaffe.
Character has consequences. John Donne was right: “No man is an island entire of itself.” What we do affects far more people in far more ways than we imagine. This thought was powerfully reinforced for me yesterday at a football stadium.
On Wednesday it was my privilege to attend the annual Dallas Cowboys Kickoff Luncheon. I made my way through the visitors’ locker room (pictured at left), then walked onto the floor of Cowboys Stadium. The world’s largest scoreboard hung from the ceiling; at 11,000 square feet on each side, it cost more than the original Texas Stadium.
The players were introduced to the crowd, then Jason Garrett delivered the traditional head coach’s speech. It was inspirational and pointed, making clear his resolve to lead the Cowboys to be great in all they do. In the midst of his remarks he made a statement that struck me: “The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose.”
What is to be that purpose? Scripture teaches that we were created to glorify our Creator (Isaiah 43:6-7). We were made to give his word and love to our fallen world: “Make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted” (Isaiah 12:4). And we are intended to use our gifts and abilities to serve him in all we do: “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).
Benjamin Franklin exhorted us to “hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?” Thomas a Kempis would have agreed: “Life without a purpose is a languid, drifting thing; every day we ought to review our purpose, saying to ourselves, ‘This day let me make a sound beginning, for what we have hitherto done is naught.'”
So let us say with King David, “I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever” (Psalm 86:12). How do you intend to glorify God today?
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