I use my Palm Pilot everyday.  With a medium point black pen securely in my left hand, I scribble reminders
and phones numbers onto my right palm.

Those notes get transferred into my appointment book or onto a 3x5-inch note card, where they join a vast array of
reflections, paper clips and rubber bands in the front of my black book.

After working this fine system for 25 years, I know my little dance routine quite well.  Business cards go to the
bottom of the pile.  Hand-written Bible verses go to the top of the stack.  Church bulletins get stuffed inside the
back flap.  It works just fine.

Throughout the year, my collection of 3x5-inch note cards grows, joining business cards, death notices, soccer
schedules, ideas from meetings, newspaper columns and Bible verses, all written on those ubiquitous white note
cards.

Like life, this menagerie gets jumbled and messy.   Several times a year, or about 100 times in the last 25 years, the
whole pile of notes and papers fall onto the floor, or worse, the street.

Once when I was preaching, for some inexplicable reason I placed my appointment book on the pulpit.  About
halfway into the sermon, one of my gesturing hands knocked it off the podium, and the company of note cards and
articles flew like paper airplanes all over the stage.  They spiraled downward, going in every different direction,
precipitating one of the only ovations I have ever received during a sermon.

But have no fear.  Every year after Easter, I put my day timer through a thorough spring-cleaning.  Resurrection
Sunday fills me with hope, and I address my heap of notes headlong.  Earlier this week I pitched, reshuffled and
wondered if any themes might emerge.   Indeed, I discovered several subjects vying for my attention this spring:

            * Time.  One note card is a quotation from writer Annie Dillard.  "How we spend our days is how we
spend our life."  On the back of the card I wrote, "If you could have time or money, which would you choose?"

            * Waiting.  Psalm 27:14 is written on one of the white cards.  "Wait for the Lord.  Be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord."  Under that verse I wrote, "Much of life is spent waiting in line -- at stoplights, at the bank
and at the grocery store.  Quit complaining.  Give thanks for your car, your money and your food while you wait in
line and while you wait for the Lord."

            * Listening. One on piece of scratch paper dated January 20 are these words of Jesus from Luke chapter
8: "For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed and nothing concealed that will not be made known or
brought into the open.  Therefore consider carefully how you listen."

            On the backside I jotted this verse from the Gospel of Mark.  "Very early in the morning, while it was still
dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed."  And then I wondered,  "Did
Jesus rise early to talk to God, or to listen?  Is prayer talking or listening?  Lord, I need to hear from you.  Help me
talk less and listen more."

            * Motives.  Lots of Proverbs make it onto note cards, including this one:  "People may be pure in their own
eyes, but the Lord examines their motives."  Beneath the Proverb I muse with: "Are my motives ever pure?   Lord, I
have many plans, but I want you to determine my steps and prevail with your purposes."

            As I sorted through the stacks, I threw out lots of business cards, church bulletins and 20 to-do lists.  I kept
a copy of a poem by Robert Frost recently given me to me by my sister.  I kept the Apostles' Creed taped to a
note card.   I kept a cross-shaped bookmarker with pink flowers that says:  "Rejoice!  I am the resurrection and life
-- John 11:25."  I kept the Bible verses I have recorded since Jan. 1, as well as a sweet little love note from my
teen-aged daughter.

Believe or not, sitting next to my computer is an actual Palm Pilot I purchased a year ago.  I tried to use it for a
while but I couldn't keep track of anything.  Now that I have cleaned out my appointment book, changed the ink
cartridge in my pen and washed my hands, I think I'm ready for another round.
 
 

 Don Follis is an Urbana minister.  Reprinted with permission from the
Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, copyright 2002.