The Story
As a kid, I kept a prayer journal. It was a simple little spiral bound notepad. I kept track of the date, some small details, and when it was answered. Some prayers were for me, some were for family and friends, some were even for world issues.
Time slipped away, and sadly so did my journal, until recently. As I've been trying to increase my prayer life with various major life events that have occurred, I was reminded of my prayer journal. I thought it would be a good thing to start that dicipline again. I also began thinking about how I could fuse a little bit of technology that is so ubiquitous these days. So I built an app. It's pretty simple really, but that's what my notepad was and I wanted to keep it the same way. That way you can pull out your phone, quickly browse or add a prayer, and be done.
I also started thinking about the network of people we have to pray with and pray for. I also remembered an article I read several years back about how something as simple as a pager was able to provide comfort and support to an ailing person. I started thinking about taking that same idea and stepping it up into some of the tools we have now: e-mail, mobile notifications and social media, and what kind of impact that might have in one's life.
So I'm adding one extra feature to the prayer journal. By default, your prayers are yours and yours alone. However, if you wish to make your prayer request known to others, you can share this prayer request and provide a link to friends, family, even strangers. When they view your prayer, they will have the option to click a button in effect saying, "Yes! I'm praying for you!". You will get an e-mail, a tweet, or whatever you prefer to let you know that somebody is praying for you. You can do the same for others.
Where will this all go? What kind of impact will this make? I'm not sure. I hope it is big and enriching to people, but time will tell. Even if you have that "digital notepad" to track your prayers and help your prayer life, I think that will be a big help. Enjoy.
[:: Sean ::]