There's An App for That

One of my good friends recently sent me an email detailing his plans to surprise his wife with a special evening out for their 11,000 day anniversary.  He said he instituted this celebration when they hit 10,000 and he is planning something special for every 1,000 days for the rest of their lives.  What a cool idea!

Since I knew that they had been married just a couple of years longer than Mrs. Sweetie and me, I started wondering how far we were from 10,000.  I knew that I could sit down with pencil and paper and figure it out.  I did that a few years ago when I calculated the days that I had been alive and figured out the precise day that I had been married for exactly half of my life.  It was January 17, 2007 and I wrote a Life Matters (in the pre-blog/newspaper column days) on the subject.

As I prepared to start the process again, I wondered if my trusty iPhone could provide me with an app to do the work for me.  It seems like the phrase, “There’s an app for that”, has become a part of our culture’s vernacular.  So I checked, and sure enough, there was indeed an app that let me know 10,000 was just under a month away.  As I sit here in my inspiration and prayer rocking chair typing this morning (November 21, 2011), today is the day—Sweetie has been a Mrs. for 10,000 days!

Since this is Thanksgiving week, I have been thinking a lot over the past few days of all the things for which I am thankful.  Other than my personal relationship with Christ, nothing ranks higher than the privilege I have had for the last 10,000 days of being Mrs. Sweetie’s Mr.  I’m so glad I married her!  And I’m glad I found that date calculator app that made it so easy to identify day 10,000.

Since I am a techie only in the sense that I use a lot of technology, I often wonder what it would be like to be one of those seriously techie guys who develop things like smart phone apps.  If I were wired that way, I think there are some apps that I would like to develop.

One would be the Thanksgiving All Year app.  Instead of only thinking about our blessings for one day of the year, we could get a daily blessing reminder sent directly to us.  Of course, we could always go old school with the idea.

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed, 

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.  

Count your blessings, name them one by one;

Count your blessings, see what God hath done; 

Count your blessings, name them one by one; 

Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.

(Johnson Oatman, Jr. 1856-1922)

And while we’re at it we could always read Philippians 4:4-7. 

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving (emphasis mine), let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” 

Now that I think about it, we apparently already have an app for that.  It’s called being intentionally thankful.  It’s called acknowledging what we have instead of focusing on what we’re missing.  It’s called perspective.  Your life matters to God and no matter where you find yourself in life, that reality never changes.

Wow!  There really is an app for everything!