On my earthly to-do list, my iPhone is my lifeline. I have my calendar (which synchronizes with my wife's), my email, my "checkbook" and banking info, passwords, reminders and notes, navigation, my food journal, grocery lists (also sync's with my wife's), my kindle app, and my bible. There are also various and assorted other less "important" apps. But if I were to be truthful, I depend on my phone a lot. It's with me wherever I go, even if it's on silent mode (and no, I have no alarms set to go off in a concert). It keeps me in touch with the people I love, and the people I loathe. It helps me record special moments (camera), and find quick answers to those pressing questions (like who is that guy playing that character in that show? - I recognize him...).
And very importantly, all of this information is backed up, sometimes even when I am not thinking about it. Some of it goes through "the cloud" and is synced with other computers (I use a service called Dropbox to be able to access work files from anywhere I can get internet access), and some of it is backed up whenever I am on my home wireless network. A friend of mine recently (I won't mention names) damaged his iPhone (he decided it was dirty, and threw it in the washing machine....).
But he hadn't connected to anything to backup his pictures, info, etc. in MONTHS. I know, it doesn't seem like a big deal until something happens, then you regret it. And don't get me wrong, despite the good natured ribbing he took, I felt for him, because I depend on my phone A LOT. Since I back mine up, if anything were to ever happen to it, I would be able to restore the info to it, or if I had to get a new phone, restore the old info to the new phone.
Okay, now the God part.
We depend on God, every day. One of the younger folk at the church in Batavia would have used an acronym for that one (DOG). Anyway, God takes care of us, reminds us that we are loved, and gives us crucial information when we most need it. And if anything ever happens to us, we are "backed up" in several ways. The first of course is through Jesus Christ. He is our backup. We know, that at some point WE WILL FAIL at whatever we have set out to do. But Jesus has it covered. He is "in the cloud". (You knew that was coming.) If we have need to access that info, that wonderful good news, we have only to restore from a source of backup. A simple connection, through reading the bible, or offering a simple prayer to God, is all we need to restore our broken self. Unfortunately, that doesn't makes us perfect, and we need to have that backup in place already. For most of the world, that is the hardest part - getting that belief (backup) in place before anything happens. I know I am still working at it, and backup regularly.
So - being Sunday, I am going to go to a different Network (church) in a few hours, and I will have another way to access that backup - worship, fellowship, and discipleship. What are you doing today to keep your information secure "in the cloud"?
