protected

We're properly protected now!

At least so I'm assured by the guy who came in today to take a look at the computer which had suffered the painful-sounding 'Blue Screen Death'. In regard to which he seems to have effected something of a clean screen resurrection.

At least, the machine is functioning fine again.

But he also installed some password-protection, without which who knows how many different people could be taking a sort of 'piggy-back' ride on the back of our interent connection out into the wilds of cyberspace.

With which there are two big problems.

Problem one - if someone had accessed the internet in this sort of way and downloaded, say, child pornography; and if the thing had been traced back to us, then we would be guilty of the offence.

Which seems a bit odd to a guy like me brought up on the deep-seated notion in Scots Law of mens rea - ie, you're meant to have some guilty mind or intent.

Problem two - anyone accessing the internet in this sort of way can easily hack into all of our files: and presumably create whatever havoc they want - if they know what they're doing (though non-computer-buffs like ourselves can cause havoc even without knowing what we're doing!).

Anyway, we're protected. No longer exposed and vulnerable.

I guess it's not just in relation to computers that there's the need to be protected in this way.

Relationships work a bit like that as well. In any context where there's some sort of exposure to others in any sort of proximity - like the home, or a community of believers - then it's a bit like our being 'on line'.

We're vulnerable. There's a need to be protected.

We were thinking along those lines at the lunchtime service today. The havoc that's caused when there's not the protection in place.

You see that all worked out in the family life of Joseph. Joseph the son of Jacob. A long time back, for sure. But lessons for today.

Gossip, favouritism and 'bad-mouthing' - all of them rear their ugly heads in the life of this pretty dysfunctional family. And yes, there are good reasons, I guess, why they do.

The basic problem was simply a lack of love.

Love refuses to speak ill about others behind their backs. Love refuses to show partiality and to favour some above others on whatever ground. Love refuses to focus on all that is wrong and chooses to see what is good.

Love is the vital protection that needs to be set in place.

It's good to be reminded of that. And it was, I think, a timely reminder - certainly for some, judging by the comments I received later on.

And, of course, prayer, is part of the the package the Lord provides to give us the protection thaht we need.

I've tried to build that into the pattern of communal life here. I see how important it is.

So a Wednesday evening affords that chance for folk to meet together and to seek the Lord's protective hand upon the different facets of our life.

There must be some spiritual equivalent, I'm sure, of the dreaded 'Blue Screen Death'. But whatever it is, we don't want to know!

We choose to be properly protected instead!