Where is technology taking us?

Everyone who knows me knows God gave me John so he could shore up my technological weakness (among other things) ! :o)

I love some of the techie gadgets we have to help us. I don’t want to know how to make them – just how to use them – like the computer. I find great pleasure in the internet for email, being in touch with lots of people, researching information with Google, etc. But I was very slow catching on and getting even up to the speed I am.

HOWEVER I saw a news item yesterday that really made me wonder. Fox News was interviewing three young women from somewhere who live together. Apparently they have had unknown and numerous men coming to their house asking for sex because of a sick “joke” being perpetrated on them on the web. Someone put an "ad" with their names, pictures address and bios somewhere on the net saying they would provide “sex on call.” They were just in the beginning stages of trying to navigate through how to stop the unwanted visitors, how to protect their reputations and how to find the perpetrator.

This isn’t the first time someone has played a sick joke over the web. We have an example right here in Pittsburgh in a story we know where someone broke into another person’s email and sent an email as tho’ from that person. The information sent wasn’t true and was defamatory.

Like feathers in the wind, these kinds of things don’t ever go totally away. And there doesn’t have to be any truth or substance to what is said, written or disseminated.

I have more than 20 nieces and nephews most of whom are in the 20 – 30 age range. I have just discovered that most of them (if not all) keep in touch through the net – not email – but “Facebook.” I am a total neophyte about this process, but I would like to be in the communication circle with my nieces and nephews particularly since I have told them for years that I am their favorite aunt and some have even “believed” me. Not all, mind you! There is at least one tenacious hold-out!

I am reminded in my musings of what Joseph told his brothers when he forgave them for their dastardly actions against him – actions which impacted not only the rest of his life but effected the future course of history as God’s story is written across the sands of time. He said, “You meant it (the things they did starting with hatred in their hearts) to me as evil but God meant it for good.”

Evil happens. Evil people use good technology for their own evil purposes. We are called to be salt and light which includes knowing enough to protect ourselves and those around us as much as possible.

The evil is not in the technology. The evil is always in the heart. We don’t need restored technology. We need restored hearts! With a restored heart we can say with Joseph (when others have done great evil to us), “You meant it for evil but (now I know) God meant it for good.”