My wife threw out a piece of paper that might have saved thousands...

My grandfather once told me, “Son, write everything down.  God will give you a thought and the Devil will steal it from you.”  I was just getting started in ministry and he was just finishing his.  Those were wise words, and, other than his

Ping

golf clubs, they were probably the most valuable things that he left me.

 

I’m not sure how much of it can be chalked up to spiritual warfare, but I’ve certainly lost an idea or too in my lifetime.  I’ve tried to write them down as quickly as I can.  The problem is, the best ideas seldom come when I’m prepared to capture them, and even if I do, they’ve often gotten lost in the shuffle of something else.  After 30 years of marriage, Debbie knows better than to throw away even the most obscure scrap of paper.  It could be notes on the back of an envelope, or pencil marks on a napkin. Her bent toward clean and my bent toward clutter have led to times of intense fellowship as I try to explain that the scribbles in the margin of the two day old newspaper now headed toward the recycle bin were actually the very words that would lead many to Jesus in next weeks sermon.  Now they were lost, both the notes and the people, and she would someday have to answer to God for it.

 

I’ve tried notebooks and filing systems, only to have thoughts either buried within the pages or stuck in a filing cabinet or computer database located somewhere other than where I needed them at the time. 

 

I think I may see some light at the end of the idea tunnel.  It’s called an iPhone and a program called Evernote.  With the iPhone I have an electronic pen and paper to capture the ideas as they come.  Evernote promises to become the virtual filing system to store and retrieve anything as long as AT&T will supply the connection.  This marriage could work.  What if every sermon I’ve ever preached, every thought I’ve written down, every website I’ve flagged as interesting, every email I thought should be saved, could be searchable and available within just a few seconds…anywhere, anytime?

 

In their marketing, Evernote promises to replace the memory portion of your brain.  Mine could certainly use an upgrade.

 

Now if my iPhone just had a bluetoothe keyboard and could cut and paste I could send my laptop to an early retirement and spend more time storing up words of wisdom to give to my grandkids someday. 

 

Anybody else experimenting with similar solutions?  

Comments

[Dave Travis]

I have tried evernote, but not for iphone since I hate ATT service.

But you are right in line with my constant advice: Write it down.

I use Moleskine Cahier pocket notebooks and always have it in my pocket. This avoids the "slip of stray paper" syndrome.

Worthy stuff gets transferred to my regular journal or through a memo or article to my blog so it is saved digitally that way.

Every six months I review the journals and then index pages that need saving and don't index the junk.

The boxes of journals and notebooks now go back almost 20 years, but probably only 5% of the material is neccesary for future.

[Kendra Golden]

This may seem low tech but it works great for my boss: write it on the palm of your hand with an ink pen! Weird? Here's why it works for her. You always have your hand with you. The ink will only survive through a finite number of handwashings. So, you are given about a 48-hour grace period to get that idea to the right place but you do have a built-in urgency to do it because it will fade. And you will continue to see it throughout the day as a reminder.

[Marie]

The only thing we need to be overly concerned with remembering is what's in the Bible, and fortunately, that's easily accessible! But if you really have some great idea that you need to remember, you could use a feature that almost every phone has: the voice recorder. That's helped me many times as I heard scripture references I wanted to remember :)

[Marsha]

Try a program called "Remember the Milk," if you find, as I did, that Evernote wasn't as easy as I'd hoped. RTM can be downloaded to your computer for free. The iPhone version requires that you upgrade your computer program to the paid version, which is $25 per year. But you can literally point your phone at the computer and ... it's uploaded.

[Kevin John Richardson]

I think you're on the right track. I don't have a phone with internet, yet I am interested because it would seem if thet designed them right the device should have jacks for one of those neoprene keyboards that ya can stuff in a pocket or even better if it were wireless as you suggest... should have a audio and video out so you can plug into a nice large monitor when you want to, especially for others to comfortably see... or better yet, when does the hologram feature get released so we can use our phones as hardrives, all the software is right where we left it online (like google tries to provide) and we can see what we're doing... I think we are getting there - we live in truly amazing, incredible times - I think God is pleased you/we are passionate about using this for His Glory. Thanks. Stay cool yall ~ Kevin