Privacy

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb."
-Psalm 139:13
     I meant to write this a very long time ago, but I never got around to it for whatever reason. In any case, I wanted to talk about something that has been revealed by Thomas Drake and Edward Snowden. If you have never heard these names before, they are two men who informed the public about the government's plans to collect data on citizens of the United States. More specifically, the NSA was developing hardware and software that could store information such as people's emails, phone calls, and other private information. The reason these people are so famous is that what they did was technically illegal, because they revealed classified information to the public. Despite this, many people consider them to have done the right thing, because the information that they revealed told us that the government was planning on violating the privacy of every American.
     I am not going to argue whether or not these men did the right thing or not, but to talk about privacy. When I heard about the government's plan to spy on U.S. citizens and the public outrage when this plan was revealed, I thought a little more about why people care so much about privacy. Of course, I believe that privacy is important because we do not want our sensitive information such as bank account numbers and PIN numbers to get leaked. However, why are we so intent on the government keeping their hands off our private things? Is it really only because we don't want our sensitive information to be "out there"?
     Now, I am not saying that the government should have total access to our emails and whatnot. I just want to talk about why we are so worried about our private things getting exposed. A common thing that people state in support of government surveillance is that "there is nothing you should be hiding anyway". I was thinking about privacy at a smaller scale, such as when a friend is looking through your phone. What is our first reaction when this happens? We freak out, and ask (or yell at) them why they are going through our phone. Now, unless you have some really sketchy photos or text messages, why does this matter so much? There is nothing you should be hiding anyway, right?
     Of course, that is a silly example, but the concept is clear. Often times, we don't like when people get too close to our personal things. I think the reason we don't like when people invade our privacy is that they will get a glimpse of who we really are. When we are outside of our personal and private space, we present a version of ourselves that we want others to see. We can choose what to show others in order to make ourselves look better than we are. Most importantly, we can hide the things that might be embarrassing or shameful. We want people to only see the best parts of us.
     To be frank, we often times don't like who we are. This is why we try so hard to only show people a part of ourselves. Also, we know that people are naturally judgmental. People are by nature sinful and judging. We don't like the fact that we are sinful, and we don't like the fact that others are judgmental. However, have you ever really thought about the fact that God knows everything about you? The fact that only God can truly judge you? It's a scary thought, but something we have to keep in mind. We don't want our sinfulness and true nature to be shown, but God already knows exactly who you are. He made you!
     I brought up the story of Thomas Drake and Edward Snowden because I think reveals that we think we are entitled to our privacy. We expect to have some things that only we get to see. I think we carry this idea in our relationship with God. We think that we are entitled to our privacy. We are okay with God knowing about our good deeds, like going to church, but we don't want Him to see our sin. As I said before, God already knows everything about us. Why pretend that He doesn't know our sins? Why get mad at God for knowing our sins? We should thank God that He knows who we are and yet chooses not to condemn us. Confess your sins and your shortcomings, and He will gladly forgive. He doesn't want you to pretend to be good, He wants you to embrace who you are and to trust Him. Let's not forget who God is, but let's put our trust in Him.
-Smart
(P.S. I realize that this post is not very well written, especially in light of my friend David's last post, but hey it's just a blog. I hope you still learn something.)

All your Heart, Soul, Strength, and Mind

"Love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength"
-Deuteronomy 6:5

"Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."
-Matthew 22:37
     A couple weeks ago our church studied Deuteronomy 6, which contains a popular and well known verse that I have written above. I didn't think much of it at the time, since I actually had to miss that Sunday worship service due to snow (I did get to see the sermon online). The next week (or the week after) I was asked to help the youth group praise team and to teach them about worship. As I was thinking about what I wanted to share, I was reminded of Deuteronomy 6:5. I had listened to a message by Ravi Zacharias a long time ago where he talked about worship, and how it requires all of ourselves to worship God in spirit and truth. I don't remember exactly how he phrased it, but I remember the basic idea. Finally, last Friday I led our college group in discussion about discipleship. As I prepared for that discussion, the topic of love was presented to me in the book we are studying. The book "Multiply" actually used Matthew 22:37, which is when Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:5, but replaces "strength" with "mind".
     Now that we have discussed the background of how I came to meditate on these verses, I want to share what spoke to me. As I watched the sermon on Deuteronomy 6, the messenger asked an obvious question that anyone would have while reading Deuteronomy 6. "What does it mean to worship God with all your heart, soul, and strength?" He then proceeded to say that it means we worship God with our whole being. I absolutely agree, but I think we can think a little bit more about what is meant by "all your heart and all your soul and all your strength (and all your mind)".
     If we think about what human essence consists of, we can consider four things. We are physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual beings. Our physical essence is easy to understand- it is simply our five senses. Our emotional essence is constituted of our emotions and feelings. Our intellectual essence is our ability to think and reason. Lastly, our spiritual being is the image of God in us, our character and our connection to God. These four things make up who we are as people.
     So why talk about this? Think again to Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:37. We are to love God with our heart, soul, strength, and mind. Each of these things correspond to a part of our being. Our heart is our emotional being, our soul is our spiritual being, our strength is our physical being, and our mind is our intellectual being. We are meant to love God with each of these parts of ourselves. If we leave any of these parts out, we are not loving God as we are commanded to. It would be a half-hearted love. Love is the highest calling that we have in our lives, so let us love God with every single part of our being.
-Smart