Spiritual Malware

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingly power: proclaim the Word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching (2 Tim. 4:1-2).

There’s been a lot in the news lately about the so-called Conflicker worm. Much of the trepidation in the industry exists because no one could predict exactly what the worm was supposed to do once the April 1 clock began chiming. Some experts fear that as many as 12 million PCs worldwide have been infected. And unlike the two earlier variants (A and B), that generated a list of 250 possible domains each day that the worm might use to route instructions from the hacker controllers, this new “C” variant produces a list of 50,000 Web addresses daily.

Even with all the warnings, there are people who have done nothing to protect their systems, hoping that it’s all an April Fools’ Day prank and nothing will happen. I combed the news accounts yesterday and it seems that so far, very little has happened, but most experts in the field are convinced that the worm could be just biding its time and will unleash its fury sometime in the not-too-distant future.

This reminds me of how the Enemy likes to work at eroding our relationship with Christ. Like malware, he plants some “bad code” in us, and then does his dirty work undetected in the background, waiting for an opportunity to wreck havoc on an unsuspecting soul. Just as spyware will cause a PCs performance to degrade over time, the Enemy’s work can do the same to our spirits. He whispers in our ears that this little sin, or that little bad habit are no big deal. “Everybody’s doing it.” “ It’s OK as long as no one gets hurt.” The “victimless” crime.

And just like the people who do little or nothing to protect their PCs in spite of various warnings of virus outbreaks, it can be tempting to dismiss the idea of any threats to our spiritual well-being. We think, “I go to church” or “I’m a good person.” That should be enough. Warnings from clergy, family, friends and others are written off as the ramblings of people who like to stick their noses into other people’s business, or at the other end of the spectrum, presume too much on God’ s mercy. Worse are those who insist that the devil is just a myth, or that a truly loving God would never allow such bad things to happen; therefore, God must not be real.

Back in 1946, Pope Pius XII said, “The sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin.” One cannot deny how prophetic that statement was in light of the atrocities that were committed in the latter half of the 20th century and continue to this day. But the real problem isn’t the “big sins” that make the headlines. The problem is the plethora of “little” sins that over time have eroded our moral sensibilities and allowed our society to continue down a slippery slope to where we find ourselves today. The easiest way to keep us in bondage to sin is to convince us that what we're doing - those little things - aren't really sinful.

St. Paul warns us that we have to be diligent and continue running the race, fulfilling our mission as Christians. We find ourselves surrounded by those who will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths (2 Tim 4:4). Periodically, I have to ask myself if my sense of Christianity has become a little too warm and fuzzy. Have I subconsciously given myself “permission” to entertain unchristian thoughts or continue in habits that I should be working diligently to eradicate from my life? How many times do we hear ourselves and others “justify” their behavior by saying or thinking, “Well, at least I’m not doing ‘X’” or "It's not like I murdered someone!"?

It has been said that Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. While that’s not a happy prospect, to be sure, we must remember that Jesus said in John 8 that it was truth that would set us free. No matter where we are in our spiritual walk, ongoing self-knowledge is always the key to maintaining and growing our relationship with the Lord.

These last few days leading up to Easter are a great time for self reflection. If things are a little too easy, maybe it’s time for a deeper dive into our spiritual lives. There may a worm lurking.