I have been struggling to get back into writing since I talked to Antoine about contributing to MMM. It seems like I have found any excuse and distraction to keep putting it off, until now. The message given at my church this past Sunday really struck a chord with me and is helping me shuffle around the priorities in my life. The message was based on “running the race” that Paul talks about in 2 Timothy 4:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

One of the main points mentioned in the message was that while running the race, we actually have to participate if we expect to win. I have been a reader of MMM for a few years now and it always helped me put my mobile tech hobby in perspective. I am honored that Antoine is showing faith in me by allowing me to contribute to the site, so I am going to do my best to stay true to the course that God has put me on, including the ministry here.

Now, when I was on my way home from church on Sunday, I started thinking about the concept of running as it applies to faith and also the physical act of running. I have noticed lately on Twitter and in my daily RSS feeds that running is becoming more social. I get tweets when my friends finish their runs and record the course they ran using an app on their phone. Sports Tracker, a tracking application for your exercise activities, just went live with their online services. Lifehacker recently published a list of what they consider to be the five best mobile fitness apps which included apps that let you share and summarize your work outs.

I asked myself, where are the services that make it easy for us to share the status of our race for faith? I know that some Bible apps like YouVersion will let you share Bible passages or notes using Facebook or Twitter, but this does not give us the depth that these new crop of mobile fitness apps give. If I am trying to get my faith into tip-top shape, it would be great to have an easy way to share my daily activities with a brother/mentor that is helping me be accountable and helping me stay on course. How about a phone or mobile computer that can be setup to send a SMS or an email when I stray off course by going to a website, looking at YouTube videos, or listening to music that could lead me off the course that has been laid out for me? In this time where people share more than most people want to know, how about enabling our mobile devices to share the things that are vital to us finishing the race and receiving the prize that God has waiting for us at the finish line?

This is a call to all of the talented developers out there to think about building features into devices, apps, or web services that can be used to track more than just the physical exercise, but also the spiritual exercise that is needed to live an obedient life and to finish the race with our heads held high.

I had this moment today where I immediately felt as if anything that I’ve done with web and mobile computing totally went worthless, and at the same time was still very important.
I was sitting in one of my usual coffeehouse spots getting the day’s reading in and wasn’t long from a conversation with a person who is part of a new church-plant.  A woman came in and stared at a bro.

Now, let me preface things. I have a mobile phone that folds out unlike most others sitting in front of me, an iPad in hand, and VIbram Five Fingers on my feet. It is not that I attract attention, but when you look at a bro, things start sticking out.

This woman looked, then looked again. I greeted her (because that’s what everyone does here in the South). And then she asked me about the iPad and my shoes. And for all the interest she had in the shoes, it was her interest in the iPad that was insightful.

She remarked that she’d never heard of the iPad, and wasn’t very computer literate. She understood desktops and laptops, but was just getting used to them. Seeing the iPad and my phone she openly stated, “this is way ahead of her [understanding].”

I immediately felt one part shocked and another part saddened. Shocked because its easy to be in this medium and get lost in the fact that not everyone knows about it.

Saddened because while I think it is totally cool that she might not have known about the iPad, the appearance of such a technology made her feel left behind even more than the laptops, desktops, and mobile phones that we (mobile and web industry folks) commonly pander about. This woman felt left behind.

I’ll contend any almost any chance that I can get that the idea of the digital divide isn’t an issue of access, it is an issue of enablement towards self-identified progress. When we get to a point where people feel that life’s context is beyond their comprehension, then it isn’t that person that’s failed, it is us who keep moving forward who aren’t doing the work of pulling up others.

When she left, I tweeted (via MMM) that I found it amazing that this woman could have felt so left behind after getting some time with the iPad. For as magical as this technology is – she did mention that it was cool and amazing – it (and her questions about the cost and abilities of the device) took what was neat and real, and left it in the realm of magic. Magic: those things that are amazing and life-altering, but out of the reach of your hands to attain or understand; a displayed and entertaining mystery.

Are we really that narcissistic these days? I don’t mean the Gates and Jobs of the world who can fund and invent this stuff, but I mean us. We who use and evangelize this technology everyday, who profit from it in either an occupation or influence – are we not rightly extending to others the ability to change their lives, to execute on their imaginations because of what we have or display?

I said in a post last week that the simplicity of tech is in its ability to be like magic. Unfortunately, this cuts the other way when magic can be seen by all, but is only able to be captured and appreciated by a few.