Thursday, March 14, 2013

Is there an app for that?

Remember the school days when the guest speaker came to give a care-for-the-earth pep talk? That’s when I started turning off the water while brushing my teeth and feeling guilty for long showers. Conserving water is a good thing; it’s environmentally conscious and it fosters responsible stewardship. The pep talk gave us the awareness and motivation we needed to take action in this area.

My wife and I recently purchased an ’09 Camry, complete with onscreen monitoring of our gas usage. While traveling through the city and down the highway, this vehicle records and reports our usage. My driving habits have been significantly impacted by this immediate feedback—my acceleration has slowed, I roll to a stop far in advance, and I find myself setting the cruise control lower. The feedback (and subsequent personal goal setting) has had an amazing influence on my driving. I’m conserving fuel like never before, and I’m highly motivated to increase my miles per gallon with every new tank.


It makes me wonder: What if there was an app for my stewardship of God’s abundance to me? If my iPhone recorded my daily efforts at sharing my wealth, would that awareness make me more motivated? And is this motivation the appropriate motivation?


The end results of my changed driving habits are positive in so many ways, carrying me another step in learning to manage God’s abundance to me. Overall, I like this modern day shift in consciousness towards stewardship. How about you?