Cyber Attack

 "In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me." Psalm 18: 6, 16, 17

    During my bible time this morning, I was distracted by a column I spied in the newspaper my husband was reading.

    In the middle of meditating on Psalm 18, a victory song written by David after the Lord rescued him from Saul, I read about the massive computer related outage we experienced last week due to a glitch in software. As you may know, flights were grounded, surgeries were delayed, banks and their ATMs were affected. Even my brother-in-law, who sought license tags for his new truck, was greeted by a closed door at the BMV. It was frightening to see just how vulnerable we really are.

    The writer of the column labeled the outage as a warning of future cyber attacks that could be intentionally caused by enemy nations.  Cyber attacks from outer space seem so surreal and dystopian, as if I am reading a comic book from the '50s, and yet they are a very real, invisible threat. Security against cyber crimes costs our country millions of dollars annually.

    As a novice in the world of technology, when I hear such terms as "cookies in the browser" or "CrowdStrike," I must investigate to understand. When I first learned of the "cloud," I thought of the Lord of heaven, whose abode is above the clouds:

"He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind. Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning." (Psalm 18: 9, 10, 12)

    While washing the morning dishes, I talked to God about my fears of cyber attacks. "Lord," I said, "it was one thing for David to take on a tangible foe in a physical battle, but we are faced with invisible threats from outer space! I feel so helpless."

    "Ah, my child," He answered in my heart, "I am above the clouds!"

    How soon I had forgotten the words of Psalm 18, allowing the words of a column to replace faith with fear. As I rinsed away the suds on the dishes, the anxieties I had felt went down the drain as well. After all, Jesus said, "In this world you will have trouble. But, take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

"He said, 'Surely they are my people, children who will be true to me;' and so he became their Savior. In all their distress, he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them and carried them all the days of old." Isaiah 63: 8, 9