Extra Credit

If a tree falls in the forest, does it still register on my Fitbit?

My Fitbit that I’ve had for seven years finally crossed over to the great cardio workout in the sky. Really it was time: they don’t even make that model anymore, and it had been seven years.

While I waited for my new one to arrive, the biggest adjustment was turning my phone’s sound notifications on since I wasn’t getting buzzed on my wrist. (First world problems, I know.)

I admit I was also annoyed not to have all my steps counted. I’m training for a half marathon, after all, and though I’m decreasing my miles this week, I still like to get credit for all the hard work I’m putting in, to see my progress and to know that I’ve hit my goals.

How will I know how much sleep I got if I don’t see my hours on my device?!?

I like to gamify my goals or other seemingly mundane tasks. Devices and apps are at the ready to add dopamine hits to all kinds of habits. I also love using my bullet journal for unplugged habit tracking of anything I could use a little extra motivation for.

Punch cards and other retail loyalty programs do the same thing: keep us coming back to get those rewards.

There’s no way I can keep track of my own steps, or at least I’m not at all willing to try. But, I can track other things - like how often I get my inbox down to zero and how many days in a row I have my morning prayer time.

While I love gamifying certain things, there are so many aspects of life we don’t get credit for, like being there for a friend, or showing up at a kids’ performance, or going to church.

My congregation doesn’t give out a punch card for church attendance. Can you imagine what would be the bonus reward to work up to after the 10^th service in a row?

And I have mixed feelings about even trying to think this way. On the one hand, it’s great to bring in external motivation and accountability to our spiritual practice.

But it’s the reward I have a real problem with, because the practice itself is the reward. Tracking our spiritual practice is fine but certainly isn’t about changing God’s mind about us. Getting to 1,000 good deeds doesn’t reward me with more of God’s love. We don’t get frequent prayer points when we work up to some reward from God. (A version of this argument actually has been a point of disagreement in Christian history. So it’s possible not everyone is with me here.)

There’s that teaching of Jesus that the first shall be last and the last shall be first.¹ The people who come in late to church, or hang near the back because they think they don’t belong or aren’t good enough – these are exactly the people Jesus reached out to and spent time with. He even has a parable about people who only work a few hours getting paid as if they’d worked the whole day.²

No rewards program here.
Jesus loves to turn spiritual rewards upside down!

That doesn’t mean we throw out the idea of tracking or even measuring spiritual growth altogether. In fact, my friend Michael Plank coaches people through spiritual development and uses a framework to talk about spiritual growth and maturity. Be on the lookout for a future post about this because there’s more here I want to dig into.

I’m happy to report that my new Fitbit did arrive, and I’m now getting credit for my steps and good sleeping habits. Whew!

And all those other things that just can’t be measured, I notice them, too. And I’m grateful for the ways God draws me into a way of life shaped by faithfulness.

Thank you for reading Almost Named Grace with Frances Rosenau. This post is public so feel free to share it.

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~What I’m reading~

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

1. Matthew 19:30

2. Matthew 20:1-16