Infected

Well it finally happened. I got my first computer virus. After all these years, I was finally infected. The worse part for me was the fact that I didn't have my stuff backed up, and yet I couldn't just reformat the computer because I needed the stuff that was on my laptop. All my church work was on there, not to mention my strat-o-matic baseball games. I am in the last week of a replay of the 1971 season and Hank Aaron has broken Roger Maris' record. I have an assembled team of my own from the 2009 season and Cliff Lee is 13-0 at the All Star break. Not to mention all of the other season I have played and keeping all the stats. The strat-o-matic forum is waiting to see how my two current seasons are going to finish. (strat o matic is my stress reliever. It is my nothing box for those who are familiar with Mark Gungor) In all seriousness all the church stuff from the past year is the stuff I didn't want to lose.

So I had to make a trip to Best Buy to see if the geek squad could get rid of the virus and yet save all my data. Thankfully they said yes it would be possible. All I would need to do was give them $300. Well I was stuck with no other choice so I said ok. A $300 mistake.

You may be wondering how I contacted the virus. This is the frustrating part, for had it been any other day I would not have hit the link. Recently I purchased a Blu Ray of an old western. But the audio was out of synch. I did some research and found that this title had that problem and that it was better to contact Warner Brothers to get them to send a replacement. I contacted Warner Brothers and they sent me a fed ex envelope to send the defective disc in and then they would send me the new one. As I woke up yesterday I was thinking of how it had been a few weeks since I sent off the disc and was thinking this week I will probably get the new one. As I checked my email there was one that said it was from Fed Ex and that that it could not deliver my package and that I needed to click on the link to get the info..... so I clicked, and the rest is history. If I had just thought for a second before clicking I would have thought through how Fed Ex would not have my email address. Warner Brothers does but not Fed Ex. If I would have just had thought it through I would have been able to remind myself that when something in the past couldn't be delivered there was a message left on my door. But no, I had just been thinking about the disc coming and I clicked. A $300 mistake.

Obviously I didn;t write this to bore you with how I got a computer virus. I like to look at the every day things that happen to us and see how those things can relate to our relationship and living life with God.

The big coorelation that I see is that, everything was just right for me to get the virus. What I mean is that had I not been expecting a package from Fed Ex I would have deleted that email instantly. It wouldn't have meant anything to me. I have seen that this is how the enemy works in our lives. He is very cunning, very deceitful, he sets us up waiting for the right moment. He is good at it, he has been able to trick us all our lives. He doesn't necessarily do things that are so obvious, because he knows we wouldn't fall for it. But he is very sneaky, waiting for the right moment to bring the temptation. And then .......we are infected. It looks right, it feels right, it's what we are looking for, but it is a setup.

Next, my computer contracted a virus but there were people who could help. My computer does not have to live with the virus. You and I have made mistakes and picked up bad habits, wrong thinking, we have a nature that is at war with God, etc.... but we don't have to stay that way. There is someone who can fix us, and His Name is Jesus. The Bible says,"The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil." 1 John 3:8b

Finally, it cost me $300 to get rid of the virus and save my files etc... When it comes to our lives, our sin, it doesn't cost us to get fixed, it cost Jesus His life. Even though we made the mistake, even though we knew better, even though we are the ones infected with sin, yet Jesus was willing to give His life so that we could be fixed. We can receive the grace He offers if we would just accept it.

Remember you don't have to stay the way you are. Jesus can help. Call out to Him. He is real and He will help. Not always the way we think would be best, but He can and will help. We don't have to live our lives infected.

Troy