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We live in a marvelous time. In my own brief life time we have gone from rotary phones on a a party line to cellular phones that allow one to call or be called over a vast portion of the world’s surface. We have gone from mail service that could take a week or longer to take a message from on end of the country to another, to email that can show up on another person’s computer, across the hall or half way around the globe, in a matter of seconds. Mimeograph machines had to have their templates painstakingly created by hand or on a type writer and each sheet of a multipage document had to be printed off separately and then each set had to be carefully correlated prior to handing out or mailing. Now one can type up, spell check, lay out and print, together with full color images or even high resolution photographs, multipage documents completely correlated and ready to be handed out or mailed. And that same document can be made into a pdf file which allows it to be sent via e-mail or posted to the internet so it can be downloaded.  Such a document can be printed identically by virtually any computer and printer any where in the world.

The mass creation and sharing of information is easier and cheaper than at any previous in history. The internet has provided the means whereby one can communicate via text, image, audio, video or any combination there of. Social networking sites such as Facebook ™, MySpace ™, Twitter ™, YouTube™ and others allow people to create virtual communities in which to share ideas, opinions, news and anything else they so desire.

This ability is at best a two edged sword. It can cut for good or for ill. It can draw people together for growth or draw them together for destructive things. Anyone can participate, all it takes is a connection to the internet. And that brings us to the title of this little blurb – mobile blogging. Today’s “smart phones” don’t just allow one to make and receive calls. They also allow one to type texts with relative ease, thanks to the familiar keyboard layout. And with an appropriate application, easily downloaded from the ‘net, one can type up a blog entry while standing in line – or waiting for the rain to slack up, like I am doing today.

Truly we live in interesting times.  The question is – will we use the tools now available for good or for ill?  Will we take an active part in shaping the world around us by entering the market place of ideas with minds transformed by God’s spirit – or will we hide and wish the world would go back “to how it USED to be”.  Change has been a constant since Eve made the first apple pie.  Too many times through out history that change has been met by apathy by those who would call themselves God’s people.