With God There Is No Need for Privacy

Today’s reading: Psalm 139:1-18

Today’s reading must seem creepy to a lot of people who have devoted their lives to the cause of privacy.

 “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?” (Verse 7)

God, it seems, is watching us all even more closely than Big Brother, the IRS, Microsoft, and King George combined.

This Psalm always reminds me of how fortunate I am to have never developed the all-too-common habit of fussing over privacy. For as long as I’ve been aware of my thoughts on this topic, my opinion has been this: if God knows everything about me already, there is no shame or fear in sharing my life’s details with other people.

That said, I understand this a complex philosophical matter filled with dilemma’s. When I’m playing chess, for example,  am I right to keep my strategies secret from my opponent?  I, of course, say yes, and I realize this conflicts with my opinion above. I should be happy, in the name of God,  to explain my game plan to my opponent and even keep him updated as the plan changes during a game. Right?

Obviously that’s not right. At least not if I want the game to be any fun for either of us.

But I am happy to share my strategies after a game. In fact, for several of my friends and me, the post-game discussions (and learning from one another) are the best part of our evenings together.

This brings to mind an exchange I overhead recently in a restaurant.

“Your soup is the best I’ve ever tasted,” a customer exclaimed to the owner. “How do you achieve that wonderful consistency?”

“I’m sorry, sir, I cannot divulge such secrets,” the man replied.

I felt sad at hearing this.

Had I been the owner, I would happily have shared my methods for grand consistency, and I might even have offered to come to the customer’s home one evening for a lesson. I would not have worried that the man might sell my secrets to another restauranteur who might put me out of business. (Or that the man would stop coming to my restaurant when he wanted great soup.) I would have simply trusted God and felt delighted that my soup — actually God’s soup — is a blessing for the world.

I realize my opinion here conflicts with capitalism, but, then God is above all economic theories. Right?

Of course He is.

He is above all theories and laws developed by man. That’s why I am happy to trust him with my ideas, my property, and even my failures and my frailties.

I of course realize that all men are not so trustworthy. But God — not  privacy — is my protection against their misdeeds.

“If I say ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.” (Verses 11-12)

I say again, I am glad that I have never spent much time or energy fretting over privacy. I recommend that lifestyle for all Christians.

Thanks be to God, my eternal protector and glorious friend. May I (and we) always put all my trust in Him.