A few years prior to his passing, Steve Jobs approached a noted writer, Walter Isaacson, to write an authorized biography on himself.  At first Isaacson refused and said maybe in a couple of decades.  But after Steve Jobs had some health troubles, Isaacson was approached again and he agreed by interviewing Jobs, his family, friends, competitors, colleagues, and employees.  The result is a 600 page biography that has been one of the top selling non-fiction books of 2011.    

I happened to glance through the book and read various interesting things about him.  I read about the family that adopted him, his opinions on various people, his relentless drive, and some of his triumphs and struggles.  But what caught my eye was when Isaacson asked Steve Jobs why he wanted a biography to be written about him.  Jobs answered, “I wanted my kids to know me.  I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.”  When I came across this passage, I had to re-read it again.  I couldn’t believe that he wanted a book to be written so that it could help to explain who he was to his children.  I immediately thought what a sad statement.  Rather than spending the time he had left with his children so that they could know him personally, Jobs chose to continue to work and have someone else write about him so that they would know him.  While Jobs may have been a genius on many fronts, he failed miserably on this end.  He may have made an impact on technology in the modern world, but his legacy to his children will be hauntingly empty.    

After reflecting on this for awhile, I began to wonder about my own life.  Now, even though I don’t have the option of getting a famous writer to come and write my biography, I don’t think I would want to do that anyway.  I would rather have the people that are close to me to know me through personal interactions.  I would choose to spend time talking, working, ministering, laughing, playing, and eating with these people.  It is more important for me to know them and for them to know me by living life together.   

Perhaps the reason why I feel this way is because the basis of the Christian faith is that God wants for us to know Him personally as well.  He’s not sitting on a cloud with a long white beard looking at us from a distance.  That is why God sent His son Jesus to come and live among us.  God even sent the Holy Spirit to live in us when we put our faith in Jesus, to guide us daily and bring us closer to God, allowing us to know God in ways that would not be possible without Him.  What is sad about this story is that Steve Jobs lived with his children in the same household, yet he was a distant father.  But this is not God’s story.  God is not satisfied that we know He exists, that we know snippets of information about Him, or that we merely ‘check-in’ with Him on occasion.  He wants us to know Him personally, intimately, as a Father to His child.  Knowing God is about living a life together with God.

Do you know God personally?  Are you in a relationship with God?  Can you say that you know what God wants for your life?  All of these, and much more, are possible.  This year, our church is embarking on a journey of knowing God personally.  I would like to personally invite you to join in our journey, for we hold onto God’s promise as seen in Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.”  May each of you be blessed as we grow in our faith together. 

                                                                In God’s grace,

                                                                Seigo Takayoshi