Day 87: Security Guards

My first "professional" job was with a defense contractor who made airplane engines. I don't know why I was surprised by the high level of security in the plant in East Hartford, CT., but being a Midwestern boy with not a lot of exposure to the outside world, I marveled each day at the number of security guards at the gates, the doors, and wandering around on the plant floor. They were guarding "top secret" stuff. Today, we are used to both physical plant security and cyber-security. Intellectual property and company information is highly guarded with email monitoring systems, anti-virus programs, and prevention from hackers into networks. Companies have programs that are running all the time to guard against the company's reputation and what their employees do online in their free, and work, time. When it comes down to it, when we are at work, we are guarded in someway all the time. Sometimes protecting the company and other times protecting us from ourselves. While no one likes "big brother", it is not all bad to have someone else watching out and over us because, truth be told, we aren't very good as human beings at guarding ourselves. Our lack of self-imposed personal security shows up all the time in the mistakes of life. We continue to be upset by the co-worker whose marriage falls apart, or the person with who we know drinks a little too much and ends up with the DUI, or a myriad of bad judgement remarks or actions that can derail or ruin a person's reputation and career. How many times do we find ourselves reading or hearing something and we say to ourselves, "Didn't they know better"? We just aren't good at guarding ourselves. God tells us that we must be more diligent in this area. In Proverbs 4:23 we are told where to place the security guard in our lives, "Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life." There it is, plain and simple. The security plan of life. If we guard our hearts, keeping ourselves as pure as we can, then we can know that the course of our life is on track and on purpose. Our heart is shaped by our thoughts, the intake into our mind, the words we hear and use, the influences we have around us. As you think about today and what is in front of you, can you see the places, meetings, interactions, where your heart must be guarded? Starting with this recognition and being prepared for the security breeches against your heart, can be life changing.

Reference: Proverbs 4:23 (New Living Testament)