PRIVACY INVADED?

In recent days there’s been a lot of talk about privacy issues concerning the internet.   Google, in particular, has been singled out because of the changes it has made regarding the information it collects about individuals and how that information is used.

We like to think of our private lives as being “private.”   We feel uncomfortable when we realize that our every move is being tracked, even though we may have nothing to hide.  Somehow, there’s a sense of being violated when our privacy is invaded.

My generation grew up with an a respect for the privacy of others.  To enforce that, laws were made about such things as eavesdropping and wiretapping. 

However, the internet has created a new reality.  With no laws on the books and with our innocent unawareness, the internet has invaded our privacy in ways we can hardly comprehend.  We feel violated when, without our knowledge or permission, information about us is being recorded and made available or sold to other entities in our society who seek to target us. 

And, not only that, but there are actual dangers -- those who seek to use our private information against us, such as stealing our identity.

Feeling violated and helpless, I don’t really like this invasion of privacy, but at least I can take comfort in the fact that no one can know or record my inner thoughts! 

Or can Someone?

“...for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts.”  (I Chronicles 28:9b)

            “For He knows the secrets of the heart.” (Psalm 44:21b)

            “You know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor.” (Psalm 69:19)

            “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and

            laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”  (Hebrews 4:13)

            “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may

            strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”  (II Chronicles 16:9)

Most of us live out our lives unaware that even our most private thoughts and actions are known by the One who created us! 

In reality, my privacy has always been invaded and recorded by God who knows me intimately.  I’m not anonymous with Him.  He knows me in the truest sense of the word.  I can’t hide anything from Him; He is all-knowing. 

So, if my privacy is already being invaded by God, why am I so concerned about my privacy being invaded by the internet? 

It all has to do with the one doing the invading.

Because God is who He is, I know I can trust Him.  His predisposition toward me is one of “goodwill.”  He uses the information He knows about me to draw me to Himself in love, with the intent of transforming my heart to be like His.  In fact, being intimately known by God brings comfort when I’m a right relationship with Him.

The internet, on the other hand, is not particularly trustworthy.  The use of the information gathered about me is used by others to, in a sense, exploit me.  Money and power are the motivating factors behind the invasion of my privacy.  This produces fear and anxiety rather than love and comfort.  

But, because I live in this new reality of the internet age, I have to make a choice.  I can hibernate and refuse to use the internet out of mistrust and fear, or I can learn to use it wisely and embrace it for what it has to offer, trusting the One who is trustworthy and all-knowing to protect me from any harm -- for ultimately He, who is all-knowing, has the most power. 

No one -- not even Google -- can invade God’s privacy or override His power!

DECEPTION

Recently, when visiting my son’s family, I was quizzing my two-and-a-half year old grandson about the color of each family member’s hair.  After asking about several family members, I asked him, “What color is Grandma’s hair?” he paused for a moment and then said, “Gray!”  

Inwardly, I was somewhat shocked!  I don’t really think of myself as having gray hair.  When I look in the mirror, I see light brown!  OK, to be honest, I see little tinges of gray around the edges and some gray hairs sprinkled throughout, but not enough (in my opinion) to consider myself gray.

Children, however, are usually pretty honest in these things.  So, I began to wonder if it’s really true that my hair is turning gray.  Do my friends and other people see me as gray?  

After careful examination in front of the mirror, and outside in the sunlight (the sunlight is painfully revealing) I have to confess, “Yes, I’m getting gray.”  I guess I’ve just been deceiving myself!

In considering this interaction with my grandson, I’ve realized just how subtle deception can be, and that I’m not immune to it.  It has caused me to reflect on how I, as well as all mankind, live in the danger of falling prey to the trap of deception.

Throughout history, men and women of great intellect have lived in deception.  Preconceived ideas, based on how we want things to be, can cause us to deceive ourselves into believing something is true just because we want it to be true.  

One example is the commonly held belief into the Late Renaissance that the sun and planets rotated around the earth.  The authorities of the Holy Roman Empire firmly embraced this view because it conveniently fit their view of the universe, and it made sense to the church authorities that the Earth should be the center of all things.  However, when astronomers like Copernicus and Galileo, and the mathematician, Johannes Kepler began to prove through the use of telescopes and mathematical calculations that the sun was the center of the solar system, and that the planets (including Earth), rotated around it, their discoveries were rejected by the church because the authorities at that time wanted to believe that the Earth was the center of all things.  As we know, they were living in self-imposed deception.

  

Conversely, we can deceive ourselves into believing something isn’t true because we don’t want it to be true.  I see this playing out continually in conversations I have with those who don’t want to believe in the God.  As long as they don’t believe there is a God, they don’t have to answer to Him.   

The great mathematician and master of probability, Blase Pascal, stated well the consequences of belief or unbelief in the God of the Bible through what has become known as Pascal’s Wager:

          If you bet there is a God and you are right, you stand to gain everything.  

          If you bet there is a God and you are wrong, you lose nothing.  

                   That’s one side of the wager:  the possibility of infinite gain and no loss.

          If you bet there is no God and you are right, you gain nothing.  

          If you bet there is no God and you are wrong, you lose everything.  

                   That’s the other side of the wager:  the possibility of infinite loss and no gain.

On the one side is the possibility of infinite gain and no loss; on the other, the possibility of infinite loss and no gain.  What does one have to lose by believing there is a God?  It only makes sense to explore who the Bible says God is, and in so doing have the possibility of infinite gain!

In whatever way we’ve chosen to think about God, there’s one thing we can’t do; we can’t change the truth.  One of these scenarios is true.  We can decide in our own minds who we think God is, what He is like, or if He exists at all, but that doesn’t mean we’re right.  God is who He is; we can’t change that simply by choosing not to believe it.

How easy it is to become trapped in deception!