The Information Age

DateLine (2/15/06 – Ponce, Puerto Rico)

There’s a new site on the web that will tell you what your house is worth. It’ll also tell your neighbor what your house is worth. It’ll tell you what your neighbor’s house is worth and every other house on your street or any other address in the US. All you have to do is type your address into zillow.com. In just a few seconds you’ll see a satellite image of your house with the book value derived from any one of many public tax and real estate records. In another few seconds the value of every home around yours will populate the map. Doesn’t matter if you like it or not, this information is pubic record and the internet is being leveraged to make it available at the click of a mouse.

Criminal records, accident records, traffic violations, motor vehicle registrations, corporate affiliations, bankruptcy records, national phone directories, sexual predator databases, average income and census profiles for addresses, hunting / fishing permits, FAA licenses, concealed weapons permits, professional licenses, names of relatives, associates, & neighbors for friends and enemies are all ripe targets for robotic searches solicited and delivered via the internet. If you are tempted to be worried about personally sensitive information that is easily accessible to friend and foe, don’t be - it’s too late. Don’t believe me? Bring up google.com and type in “background check.” What used to take weeks and the services of a hired private investigator can now be accomplished from home in hours.

One of the by-products of the “information age” in which we live is the relatively easy access to information that most of us would feel much more comfortable knowing that it was securely stored under “lock and key.” On another plane our personal and private thoughts are closely guarded by our own desire to protect our reputations and polished veneers. The truth for all of us is that all of this information and more will eventually be made public. The Bible says in Luke 8:17, “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.”

The sin within us is ugly. Our energy should not be directed toward a cover-up but a cleanup. The only effective approach to cleanup is to “fess up”; “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

Unfortunately the cleanup does not purge the databases that contain all the personal information alluded to above – that legacy will remain. So then should we cower paralyzed in the corner fearing the day our deepest darkest secrets are revealed to the masses? Absolutely not! At the end of our life God will do one final background check which will search the heavenly citizenship database. Nothing else will matters; not now, not then. We’re either in it or not.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” Hebrews 12:1-2.