Are You in a Bubble?

Recently I took a class in using my Apple computer more efficiently.  I was absolutely blown away by the minutia that I could input into my event calendar, including maps, websites, addresses and the travel times between events; in my iPhoto library, I could tag faces and locations, then quickly share it with the world of Email, Message, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter,  through Photostream, Airstream and iCloud features.  During my brisk stroll through the mall to the store, I observed most mallpeds (mall pedestrians) not window shopping, but busy instead on their phones, shutting out distractions with their earbuds, as they walked with a focus that would cause their classroom teachers to envy.  Is it no wonder?  They must:  Listen to music?  Check their navigator? Check in on Facebook?  Capture a selfie? Update their status? Change their profile?  Twitter their thoughts? Search coupons (maybe?)? Text their shopping location?  Diagnose themselves?  I don't know, but I do know storefront windows have to find a new way of competing with the window browsing on our phones.  

For me, there is one great benefit to this tech society.  No longer do I have to wonder how God could possibly count each sparrow or hair off my head that falls to the ground.  Seriously, that was one of my biggest obstacles to coming to faith.  How can God know everything about me - and everyone else?  Impossible!  Not if he is bigger than Apple - and has the infinite space of the universe for storage - no need for massive server farms. And what's up with Apple storage calling itself "iCloud"?  Have they never read Hebrews 12:1 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses...."?  We certainly are.  And God is certainly bigger than Apple (now the most "admired" company in the world according to CNN Money) and I doubt He even needs a "server farm."  

"And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought." 1 Chronicles 28:9a

"And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God."  Romans 8:27

"The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God."  1 Corinthians 2:10

I do wonder, however, if we as individuals might just be at the pinnacle of our "knowledge."  As the world of technology knows more and more about me (and I gladly share the details), this great "cloud" is becoming more and more a bubble to insulate me.  Ads are geared toward what I search - they track my every move on my machine, some turn on my microphone to hear what I'm doing, some turn on my camera to watch me (if that's not scary....); my calendar fills up with the minutia, pictures tag me, location services tell me what's around me.  In this small world of commercial greed, I am very important. This small world that Thomas Friedman proclaimed flat - open, accessible, cheaply traveled, and the great equalizer of competition for knowledge, goods, and services, is reverting to the very small world of one - me, and I am quickly my own "willing" victim.  

And that's really all it was about when Satan gave Eve an apple.  "God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" [Gen. 3:5].

Now if only we could find a way to tell the difference and to discern truth. Isn't that what Pilate asked?

Jesus claims to be the truth. "I am the way, the truth and the life" [John 14:6].  He promises that "if we seek him, we will find him" [Matt. 7:7] and that we "can know the truth and the truth will set us free" [John 8:32].  If you are searching for truth (and most of us claim to do so), don't leave out a search through God's word - it might be worth an eternity of browsing time.