Cloud Almighty? An Appeal to Technology Pastors

I watched a commercial the other day. It was a dramatization where an individual was sharing how thrilled he was with the access his service provider gave him to the “almighty cloud.” I know…It was just a joke… right? Everyone knows that the “cloud” is essentially nothing more than massive collections of computers providing services on a global network. We all know that the cloud has no soul…right? I am probably just being too dramatic about this and I just need to relax and enjoy all the great services we have at our disposal today…

After-all, now through technology, the whole world has one language and one speech. People are saying let’s come together and “make a name for ourselves.” Technology has brought us together. It can help us feed the hungry, cure the sick and the lame. It can help us solve poverty. It can help us change the world. To a certain extent I believe this to be true. However, I hope that some of you reading this post recognized that the opening few sentences of this paragraph were taken directly from Genesis 11…the account of the tower of Babel. Please understand…I actually consider most of this stuff to be good. Technology really is amazing, with great potential to help people. I am just sad to see that our world continues to believe in the lie that we can actually build a tower to reach and even replace God.

At the rate humanity is growing in fields of science and technology. I think it is conceivable that humanity can and will produce innovations seen only in some of the most “far-out” science fiction movies of today. For me it isn’t a question as to whether or not our ability to create and innovate is right or wrong. My sadness comes from the fact that we have the arrogance to believe that we can build and actually manage this world we are living in…without God. That we can engineer solutions to the huge problems we have in our world and create lasting peace and community…without God.

Many in our world believe that our accelerated and expanded opportunities to influence the world around us will propel humankind to move in the right direction…without God. A wise friend once advised me to never elevate a person to a level of responsibility that is beyond their character and integrity. I can’t help but notice that as our world seems to place increasing amounts of trust in information and technology to deliver us to this better life, we are also placing a great responsibility on the people who manage this information and technology. I realize that this may sound negative, but as I look at all the injustice in our world. Humankind as a whole doesn’t have the best track record for having great character and integrity.

With this in mind, I would like to make an appeal to the people who work as leaders and professionals in the I.T. field and also believe in God through Jesus Christ. Now I just mentioned that I believe the world is placing increasing amounts of trust in technology. You put your trust in God. The world believes that technology can bring us together…You believe that only God can bring us together. The world believes that faith in God is not necessary. Faith in our ideas our innovations and in our technology will meet our needs. You believe that only God can meet our needs.

I strongly believe that as we move into the future, believers who work in the field of technology will have a more critical mission for Christ than they might currently imagine. I urge you to ponder this perspective as you walk through your datacenters, write code, implement solutions, answer support calls and manage information.

9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
1 Peter 2:9

In Ecclesiastes 4:4, Solomon wrote,

“All labor and all achievement spring from man’s envy of his neighbor. this too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. The world is chasing after the wind, However, you know that without God…anything we may achieve is meaningless.

Now I realize that statements like the ones I have written above might drive people to dismiss me as some sort of religious fanatic. I respect that. I guess I am a Jesus Freak after all. However, all the excitement around technology today can be intoxicating. Frankly, I believe that even the most faithful Christian believers and leaders in our world today can get caught up in the hype. In this case, I urge you, the technology leader and/or professional who believes in Christ to remember that your role as a technology pastor will always outweigh your role as a technology expert. It is your relationship with our God, your knowledge of His Word and the integrity of your faith that will will equip you to make the biggest difference in this world for Christ. Everything else is just chasing the wind.