Gauging Priorities

Revelation of God’s glory is the whole thing.

It’s not just the main thing, but the only thing that matters. All else is just the method and means to that mission. As I have often said for decades: All Creation is but a tool for His glory. If we miss the mission, then the rest of it is worse than pointless; it becomes utterly deceptive and sucks us into destruction. This world, and our presence in it, has only the single purpose of glorifying Jehovah.

My approach to every concern is controlled by that. We talk about computer security, for example. I study it every day, with a particular eye on the threats to computer security. The point is that we maintain conscious control over the machine and what it does. There’s no way to prevent it doing things we don’t understand. We accept that as part of the complexity of human activity. Rather, our concern is that it does what we want, with an understanding that it will probably do some things we actually need whether we know it or not. We assume, or at least hope, that it will not betray us by doing things that will actually hurt us in some way. As long as there is some high probability of the machine and software working together to enable some conscious desires, we take the risks of having to trust people we never see and can’t get to know.

And we tend to have some measure of trust in the wider system because it seems to work well enough. We look around us and see no morality tales that would make us feel like suckers. Yes, some folks are hurt in the process, but we realize it’s not very many and we reasonably believe that we understand the causes well enough to bring the risks down to a manageable level. That is, for those of us given to thinking about such things at all. We know the world is full of mindless sheeple who pay no heed in their headlong rush to various flavors and types of hedonistic pleasure, or at least entertaining diversion. But you aren’t like that, or you wouldn’t bother reading this blog in the first place.

We are conscious of having a purpose, and we want to engage the process of making sure all we do fits that purpose.

My considerations will often be different from what is common among computer security experts. I understand privacy; I understand why folks say they value it, but I give it a much lower place in the scale of things. Having folks snoop in my personal life is annoying, but damage is unlikely in the sense that it will hinder my divine calling. Instead, I place a very high value on making sure that the whole system of computer operations allows me to focus on that divine calling. If I can’t trust the system to convey the message, I’ll take action to protect that message as having the highest priority. That is, if I’m going to use computers at all, they had better serve the message, because the message is how I serve God’s glory.

That applies to every virtual facility on the Net, as well. I don’t have time to use a service merely for my own entertainment. It’s not a sin to engage in something others consider frivolous, simply because some diversions really are harmless in the context of my life. Indeed, a good distraction of my conscious mind can allow the other parts of my soul to do something I can’t do when my mind gets in the way. There are times when I simply need to suppress the conscious ego, and my heart has gotten pretty good at telling me when. So a simple puzzle type game is useful, but a video game is not. Most video games demand too much and actually hinder that process. And the same goes with things like social networking. That’s why I broke off using Facebook; it consumed too much without giving back enough opportunity for the message.

I’m starting to wonder if Seen is any better in that sense. It seems too many folks are turning it into another FB gabfest — the same crap with a different flavor. I’m okay with folks chasing their favorite activism, but I don’t want them shoveling it at me. Filtering that stuff out takes time and resources, and I’m not sure it’s a good trade. There’s no doubt in my mind some folks give me a friend’s request solely to enlarge their audience, not to actually engage me as a person. Meanwhile, of those who went there simply because I did, because they wanted another way of chatting with me about this faith I teach, precious few are still showing up to do that. In other words, meaningful engagement over the message is declining there, and I’m not sure I want to stay involved.

I do like the idea of having access to a rather well-protected email account from the related service called Unseen. There are times when it might be useful because it takes advantage of security factors other email services don’t offer. Not in terms of absolutes, but it’s better in terms of hedging my bets in some contexts. Specifically, it will help me protect my control over the messages I send so that they aren’t edited by someone with a conflicting interest.

In the end, that’s the highest priority for me in computer security. It’s why I use Linux instead of Windows, for example. I’ve had problems on systems that run Windows. If you don’t experience such hassles, you can ignore all that noise. Use what works for you in your mission. But I’ve had trouble with Windows computers betraying my trust, doing things that hinder the message, so I have to take a different route. At least I have some options with PCs.

Not so much with the Android tablet I’m learning to use. There aren’t any real alternatives at this point; it’s either Android or don’t use the tablet. However, the far higher convenience factor encourages me to stay at it for now. Such a small and lightweight package might permit me to keep the message working when the context changes, as it surely will. The world is in a high state of flux right now, and this is a way of hedging my bets. I can tell you my heart supports the notion of being ready to use it, but I can’t explain more than that because it’s not something I can put into words.

Little things require adjusting, like switching to the IMAP protocol for all my email. I need to quit downloading it directly using the POP3 protocol because I need to keep track of my email from any device I own. I suppose you can sense the high probability of dramatic changes for us humans, particularly here in the West, real soon now. So even without a deeper guidance, it seems like a good idea to be ready for anything.

That is, we need to be ready to take advantage of what comes for His glory.