According to Insider, an iconic quote by Steve Jobs can be traced back to a 1985 interview. Jobs said, 

At Apple, people are putting in 18-hour days. We attract a different type of person, a person who doesn’t want to wait five or 10 years to have someone take a giant risk on him or her. Someone who really wants to get in a little over his head and make a dent in the universe. We are aware that we are doing something significant. We’re here at the beginning of it, and we’re able to shape how it goes. Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future.¹

Jobs, who died in 2011, was a brilliant man, for sure. But one much wiser than him put life in this perspective.

Ecclesiastes 2:15-16
Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool!

Solomon did not oppose doing things that count. He wasn’t against inventions, creativity, and people trying to make a difference. But Solomon is a realist. Whether you invest your time in work that is significant or whether you squander your days, the wise man and the fool are soon forgotten. After you die, your name is mentioned less and less. Someone else takes over what you started. And the sun “rises, and the sun goes down, and [returns panting] to the place where it rises” (Eccl. 1:5). The world continues without you.  

Count Nikolaus Von Zinzendorf was born into Australian nobility. He was expected to follow his father in government service but, instead, bought an estate to form a community for Christian minorities. He was later instrumental in starting the Moravian Church, sending missionaries around the globe. Some would say Zinzendorf made a dent in the universe of Christian history. But he didn’t see it that way. Zinzendorf humbly kept a Solomon perspective. He said, “Preach the gospel. Die. Be forgotten.” 

This is not meant to be a downer. This is deep theology. Life is not the end-all-be-all. Existence under the sun is short, elusive, confusing, and wearisome. God has placed eternity in our hearts (Eccl. 3:11). Our inner being does not yearn to put a dent in the universe but rather reserve a place in heaven. Only Jesus can satisfy the true yearning of our hearts. 

Father, show us the futility of spending all our time on things under the sun. Show us how futile it is to destroy relationships with others and ignore our relationship with you in order to put the proverbial “dent” in the universe. Show us what counts today so we can live with significance into eternity. In Jesus’ name. Amen.