Time

This quote, from C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity, has been one of my favorites for a long time:

I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.... If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charities expenditure excludes them.

I love the idea that we should sacrifice our means to help others, but I sometimes struggle to know how to apply it. I have a lot more money than I need, and it seems imprudent to give away so much money that it impinges on what I can do, since that would preclude saving. Where's the happy medium?

Today in church a guy named Dave shared a thought that made me think about this idea in a new light. He mentioned the story of the widow's mite, recorded in Mark 12:41-44:

41 And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.

42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:

44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

Dave then made the point that most of us don't want for money, but we do want for time. Our poverty isn't financial, but temporal. The obvious parallel is that sacrificing our time to serve God and others, especially when we're short on it, is of great value.

Maybe this is the modern version of C.S. Lewis's sentiment:

I am afraid the only safe rule is to spend more time serving than we can spare.... If our service does not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say it is too little. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our service to others excludes them.

Food for thought.

Mormonism and politics

I just finished reading a transcript of a discussion between Richard Bushman and a panel of journalists discussing the interplay between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and politics. The discussion, Mormonism and Politics: Are They Compatible?, took place last year as part of the Faith Angle Conference, sponsored by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The transcript is long, but I found it fascinating.

A lot of the discussion focused on Mitt Romney's then-approaching presidential bid, and how his faith would affect his politics and others' perception of him. The discussion also included a lot of interesting history on Mormon politics, especially the rapid transition from radical policies to quite conservative ones between about 1890 and 1910. It's worth a read.

Technology and the Church

I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so I've followed with interest the Church's adoption of technology to help it accomplish its mission. The Church has used computers for years to keep track of financial and membership information in wards and branches, and it first set up shop (er, church) on the internet in 1996.

Things have come a long way in the last few years. Today, the Church's web site is useful, easy to use, and well designed. You can view ward directory information online, and mormon.org is a great resource for sharing our beliefs with the world.

Joel Dehlin became the Church's Chief Information Officer in 2004, and a lot of good things have happened since then. The Church's web sites have been redesigned, and they now both work and look better than before. A new, more capable graphical program for managing unit information has been deployed, replacing the ancient DOS-based program that had been in use for over a decade. The recently unveiled maps.lds.org site is a great way to locate a place to attend church.

Of course, there's still lots of work to do. For example, it would be great if I could view and report on my home teaching assignment online, or if leaders could view an interactive map that shows where each ward member lives. I would love it if I could subscribe to a feed that automatically showed church relevant church events on my calendar. I spent some time as a missionary in working in the mission office, and there's tons of room for technology to help out there.

I was happy to discover today that the Church is reaching out to the technology community through its LDS Tech web site. They're sharing what they're working on, soliciting feedback and help with the Church's technology projects, and working to develop some of the missing features mentioned above. Some of the projects on the site are a new home and visiting teaching application and a system for managing mission offices.

One of the coolest sections of the site is the LDS Tech Wiki, where people with technical skills can contribute to unfinished projects. If you have design, programming, editing, or other skills, and you're looking for a great place to put them to work, take a look.

Sometimes I worry that spending so much of my time studying and developing technology isn't the best way to contribute to the world. It's encouraging to see that technology is being used by the Church (and others) to accomplish great good in the world. I'm excited to see what the future brings.