Don't Trust the Firewall

We got to our beach house last Saturday around 3pm, and sometime between then and dinner I tried to jump online with my work laptop (a PC) to check my email.

INSTANT. FAIL.

Almost immediately I had pop-up software telling me my computer was infected, and then I couldn’t load any webpages or open any other programs. My computer had basically been bricked by some Taliban-level program called Antivir.

It didn’t take me long to realize what had happened. It wasn’t that some virus found my computer in those 10 seconds that I was online at the beach house. The malware had probably been on my computer for a while, it just wasn’t able to do anything because all the networks I had used recently had strong enough firewalls to protect me.

Guess what? This crap happens in our lives too.

People just don’t decide to have an affair in the middle of a 5-minute conversation. People don’t decide to cheat their business taxes on a whim. People don’t become addicted to destructive behavior the first time they do it.

The seeds are planted way before the catastrophe by the little decisions we make every day.

The guy or girl who looks at porn a few times a month and lets their mind wander to what it would be like to be with every woman or man they know is no different than my computer running fine with a latent virus inside. All it’s gonna take is the wrong situation, the time and place where there’s no firewall on the network and the circumstances are just right (just wrong), and BOOM. ROASTED.

Don’t think it’s okay to let those thoughts swim around in your head because you’d never REALLY do it.

You wouldn’t REALLY cheat on your spouse, besides there’s no hot guy or girl out there who’d want to sleep with you anyway (yes there is).

You wouldn’t REALLY cheat on your taxes, besides you’re not smart enough to know how to do it (you can learn).

Some of us have some “latent viruses” in us now, and if we don’t do something to clean them up, it’s just a matter of time before we get burned. I know because it’s happened to me.

So pay attention to the little decisions you make every day and ask God to help you weed out the things in your life that are setting you up for disaster. (The Bible calls this renewing your mind, which I would refer to as a “Holy Virus Scan” if I was into cheeseball metaphors.)

“…be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” – Romans 12:2

“…Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.” – 2 Corinthians 4:16

Don’t trust the firewall.

Don’t expect your circumstances to protect you from the worst possible scenario.

They won’t.

Back with the funny tomorrow, just wanted to share this today. Thanks for understanding.