I'll admit that I am slightly cat-mad but that's not the only reason the headline feature on the BBC site caught my eye today. Recently a team of scientists attached GPS locator chips and small cameras to the collars of a selection of friendly felines from a village in Surrey and tracked their behaviour. Data was transmitted to a central computer every time the cats moved giving an accurate representation of where they went and what they saw. If you happen to be interested in the life of Chip, Rosie, Coco, Hermie or their friends you can follow your chosen moggy or tom's cat-cam here.
But cute furriness and biological intrigue aside, the articles got me thinking. What would people see if someone attached a GPS and a camera to my neck? What would be flashed across the screens of computers worldwide if I live-streamed everything that I looked at and everywhere I went?
Well, you'd get some views of my cooking and my housework - pretty innocuous stuff (though I admit the level of dust in some dark recesses of my living room may raise an eyebrow or two). You might get a glimpse of some up and coming products from The Good Book Company (and there's some exciting stuff there!). This morning you would have seen my world tilt as my bus driver got lost and suddenly decided to go round a roundabout far too small for a double-decker. That may have made you smile.
But then there are the other areas of my life. You'd get to view my interactions with other human beings, my TV viewing, my clothes shopping, my reading. And while I don't think I do anything particularly criminal with my time, I'm pretty sure there are things in my life I wouldn't want you to see because I know they are not in line with God's will!
Have a think about your life. Would you want that streamed around the world?!
However, the reality is that God sees those things without the aid of a webcam. As Hebrews 4 reminds us, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account". He is not a sinister big-brother looking over our shoulder in the hope of catching us sinning. But he is all-seeing, all-knowing.
He sees the wonderful acts of love we lavish on others - and the moments of service that no-one else views. With those things he is pleased. But he sees the less wholesome stuff too. He sees our uncaring attitudes and actions, our avoidance of responsibilities and our reluctance to get involved.
So the next time we feel the desire to verbally lash-out rising in our hearts or the temptation to dwell a little too long on an unhelpful website or TV programme overtaking us - the next time we find ourselves looking with envy at someone else's possessions or judging the appearance or actions of others from a hard heart, let's remember that our actions are being live-streamed to the loving King of the universe. His care for us is beyond measure - he wants us to battle the sin in our hearts and the temptations of the world. Given that he knows what we're up to, let's turn to him and ask once again for his help to persevere in what is good and what is true.
