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Big Brother or Heavenly Father

So the debate over Britain's surveillance culture continues to rage with the latest report from the House of Lords Constitution Committee. In the report, the committee suggested that growth in surveillance by both the state and the private sector risks threatening people's right to privacy, which it said was "an essential pre-requisite to the exercise of individual freedom". The report went on to say that "There can be no justification for this gradual but incessant creep towards every detail about us being recorded and pored over by the state."

It is true to say that no people in history have been spied on like the British public. We have a proliferation of CCTV cameras and the largest DNA database in the world per head of the population; not to mention the myriads of databases containing personal information. Now the Government wants to keep records of all out telephone conversations and emails, supposedly for our safety.

What is uppermost in most peoples' minds is what happens to this data. Government and private agencies seem to "mislay" CD-ROMS and data sticks on a regular basis. Also what happens in the future if Britain comes under the power of some extreme government? We only need to take a lesson from history to see what can happen. When the Nazi regime overrun France and Holland and started rounding up Jews, their success rate in Holland was far greater than in France - why? - simply because the Dutch kept meticulous records on every individual whereas the French did not.

Of course, Christian believe that there is someone who has always kept an eye on us. Long before there was anything like a CCTV camera the psalmist wrote:-

O LORD, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely
(Psalms 139:1-4)

Whereas I find the Government's collection of data on me a worrying thought, I cannot say the same of God. I'm pretty sue he has never lost a data stick and I'm pretty sure also that he does not want to keep tabs on me just in case I do something wrong. Whereas the Government collects data out of fear, God collects his out of love. Whereas the Government say it does what it does to make me feel safe, with God I know I am safe. Whereas the Government constantly betrays peoples; trust, God has proved himself true to his word time and time again.

Peace and all good

Dave

BBC on Lords Report

Managing Time - Managing Myself

Part of today was spent sorting through the bookshelves in the office. I came upon a number of books bought some years ago on the subject of Time Management. Many of the authors followed the basic principals of goal setting, those being long, medium and short term goals. Nothing wrong with that, but some of the examples given of long term goals seemed a little far fetched. "I want to be the CEO of a large Corporation by the time I'm thirty". "I want to make my first million by the time I'm twenty one." There was nothing about a happy family life or any of the more 'normal' things most people can expect.

However, there was one book that was different from all the rest. It was "Ordering Your Private World" by Gordon MacDonald. Unlike the others, this book looked at Time Management from a Christian point of view.

The write up for the book states "We have schedule planners, computerized calendars, and self-stick notes to help us organize our business and social lives every day. But what about organizing the other side of our lives---the spiritual side?"

Being Dyslexic I rely on Time Management and the greatest invention for me has to be the PDA or Smartphone. I now have an iPhone which contains all my Time Management stuff. My diary, of course, kept in synchronization thanks to Exchange Server, also a program called Todo from Appigo - again I keep this in sync with Outlook: it is these two programs that control my external life.

But what about the spiritual life of which MacDonald speaks ? Thankfully, that's now covered with two other programs: ESVBible bundle which gives me access to my Bible wherever I am, and a program called Meditation, which helps me with the periods of quite that I find so essential if I am to take what life throws in my direction.

Those books on time management which I bought some years ago? Well they were purchased in a desperate attempt to get my life back on track at a time when it seemed as if I was failing to cope. Where they useful? Yes, but not as useful as stopping and getting my 'private world' organised. Only when that happened did the real breakthrough come. I intend to keep it that way.

Todo

Bible Software

The Good Childhood® Inquiry

Today the Children's Society released its report into Childhood. It is a long affair and no doubt will become the basis of much debate. Of course, there will those that will rubbish the report without reading it simply because it has a Christian ethos.

One line in the sumary of the report struck me because it tied in very much with my own thinking of late

Most of the obstacles children face today are linked to the belief among adults that the prime duty of the individual is to make the most of their own life, rather than contribute to the good of others. (Children's Society)

As if to reenforce that argument I listened to a mother being interviewed on Radio 4. It was a short interview but I lost count of the times she said "I": not once did she mention her children.

Jesus hated individualism. He could have preached his message alone but he chose others to share in that mission. He talked about his followes as being Children of God - a God who loves them and cares for all their needs, spiritual, physical and emotional: not an absent God but one who is always present. Jesus talked of his Church as being a fellowship of people from all around the world., not a collection of individuals. If Jesus had looked to his own individual interests he could have avoided the cross, but he didn't. In the word of the report he contributed to the good of others.

It would be easy to condemn individualism, it is not condemnation that is required but compassion. The individualistic person is often unhappy deep down because they are operating in a mode that God never intended. Every so often that sadness may surface only to be supressed by a bit or "retail therapy."

The answer to individualism lies in allowing people to taste a better option; as Christians we believe we know what that option is.

The Children Society Report