5-27-19<\/p>\n
Alexa, Siri, Hey-Google\u2026 2019, meet 1984. Ten years ago, the FBI Director calmly told a Congressional committee that he (even he) puts tape over his computer screen\u2019s mini-camera lens. A friend of mine who has worked in sensitive national intelligence schooled me about secret surveillance a few years ago \u2013 we should regard the \u201coff\u201d buttons of our electronic communications devices as irrelevant: they still listen and watch us.<\/p>\n
Not can<\/em> listen and watch. They do<\/em>. \u201cYou can turn your lamp off,\u201d he explained; \u201cbut electricity still runs through it.\u201d<\/p>\n Do we care? Most of us don\u2019t. Should we? Most of us say Yes, but surrender to the inevitability; or to the futility of resistance. Sometimes we joke about it. But it is not funny.<\/p>\n On the other hand (a very other hand), God watches us all the time. He even knows our minds, reads our thoughts. And our hearts.<\/p>\n About this<\/em> reality \u2013 not a scary rumor or headline \u2013 I believe that people react in one of three ways.<\/p>\n * They become numb to it, hoping that God will not really notice the details of our existence and the fine-print of our lives. Or that eventually He will grade us on a curve;<\/p>\n * They become paranoid to the point, perhaps, of ceasing to believe in God, which they think is an easier way to cope; or to believe in a fuzzy version of God that the world manufactures as a conscious-salving substitute;<\/p>\n * Or they believe, trust, accept. Repent. Reform. Welcome, not fear, His watch over us. Use the truth of this reality as a discipline to act right, and please Him. This may be called a Conscience; so be it. Its agent is the Holy Spirit, sent to indwell us.<\/p>\n I pray we all choose what\u2019s behind Door Number Three.<\/p>\n Then we will discover that God is not a spiritual spy, but a companion. A familiar Friend. The One who represents conversations waiting to happen. My daughter Heather used to audibly chat with God while driving or doing household chores. My friend Marlene Bagnull will pray in the middle of conversations with friends \u2013 \u201cFather, please…\u201d thus and so; seldom saying \u201cAmen\u201d as she switches back to human-chat \u2013 a sort of Constant Comment not bound by teacups. Cool examples, I think.<\/p>\n