The Fly in the Ointment

The “personal metrics” movement is gaining traction as tools to easily collect data become more common. But there’s a problem.

How many of the following blanks can you fill in?

• Time you awoke today ____

• Your heart rate upon awaking ____

• Your blood pressure upon awaking ____

• Your cholesterol number ____

• The amount of time you slept each night last week, on average ____

• The number of minutes you exercised in the last 24 hours ____

• Your maximum heart rate during the exercise ____

• The number of calories you consumed yesterday ____

• How many milligrams of caffeine you consumed yesterday ____

• How many milligrams of various vitamins and minerals you took yesterday ____

• Your pain level yesterday, on a scale of 1-10 ___

• Your mood today, on a scale of 1-5 ____

• Where you rate on the narcissism scale ____

Now, one more: How many of you, if given a chance to consult your records, could fill in the blanks of that report for this same date one year ago?

These days, there’s a good chance that either you or some people in your congregation can provide personal data on several of those questions, including the one...