I’ve commanded you, haven’t I? Be strong and courageous. Don’t be fearful or discouraged, because the Lord your God is with you wherever you go (Joshua 1:9).

The purpose of technology is to make life easier for human beings.

Some technologies make it easier for us to move around, others to communicate, others to work and others to protect ourselves.

Wherever there is a human need or activity we will find some kind of technology helping us.

This is a wonderful thing, but it is also causing a lot of problems.

Because the fact that we can do things more easily does not mean that those things are good or that we do them well.

For example, manufacturing things more easily is leading us to deplete many resources; the improvement in military technologies is helping us to better destroy ourselves in case of wars, and the same ease we have of being able to talk to someone on the other side of the world, is leading us, paradoxically, to be a society much more closed in on ourselves, and we do not even know who the neighbor across the street is, unless we find him or her on Instagram.

We have become so accustomed to technology that we are being trapped by the law of least effort, but taken to its most negative extreme. If there is no button to do my homework, I don’t do it.

And so, we have become techno-addicted, or perhaps better, techno-dependent. Because if the fear of a possible massive power outage were to become a reality, the least of our problems would be not being able to access our profile on social networks.

Such a blackout would leave us without communications and without banks instantly, which would lead us to be unable to buy anything but the little cash we have. But in a few minutes we will also run out of water and heat as the pumps fail. In a few hours the few advanced medical services that would have survived with generators would be shut down, and in a few days transportation would be paralyzed. No communications, no food and no water.

And in the face of this many have gone crazy again, accumulating food and water in their homes, although this time the toilet paper has not been so sought after, perhaps because the sanitation network would not work either.

It is also true that this time the collection has been smaller, probably motivated by the scandalous nature of some alleged prophecies, given by supposed prophets and prophetesses, who claimed that the world was almost coming to an end in 2020, and that they did not come true.

But it is also true that many live in fear of an uncertain future.

Because problems and difficulties will always be there, and even more so if we try to live as Christians in a society that has turned its back on everything that smells of God.

And what can we Christians do in the face of this and other possible catastrophes? To trust in the same God in whom Joshua trusted.

He was in a very complicated situation, he had to lead Israel into the Promised Land. A place full of fortified cities and powerful armies.

The situation was to be fearful, and God knew it, that’s why he addressed to him the words we find in the book of Joshua, chapter 1 and verse 9: I’ve commanded you, haven’t I? Be strong and courageous. Don’t be fearful or discouraged, because the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Of course, we will face difficult and tough situations throughout our lives. If cities run out of water we will all go thirsty. But the sons and daughters of God have a precious promise, whatever we have to go through God will be with us.

And this is not just a promise to Joshua, in Matthew 28:19-20, when Jesus is entrusting the disciples with the Great Commission he tells them: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Therefore, every time you experience a difficult situation in your life, do not let yourself be discouraged. Cling to God and fight in faith.

Never allow circumstances to defeat you and keep you away from God. Trust in Him and try hard.

Because God will always be at your side, and in Him is victory.

God bless you.

Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash