Last month there was a colossal failure in computer systems around the world.1Airline flights were cancelled, financial markets disrupted, and industrial operations faltered. The failure appeared to involve just business computers using Microsoft Windows systems. A cybersecurity company, CrowdStrike, delivered a defective update that produced the computer crashes.
When computers crashed in 1993 while using Widows 3.0, Microsoft referred to it as a “blue screen of death” error. A computer, unable to operate safely, generates a blue screen and a message error in white print. Experts referred to the problem as a “stop error” since Windows stopped working.
Apparently, stop errors are hard to fix. The reason for the failure can be generally understood, but the specifics are more complex. One expert explained the error occurs at “the deepest levels of the operating system, where detailed interactions with hardware occur.” I did, though, understand his examples: problems with memory or overheating.
A variety of ways to fix blue screen of death errors were offered online, nearly all were above my level of comprehension. One fix I could understand was to turn your computer on and off 15 times; a universal problem solver!!
Stop errors have been around since the time God created the first mobile computer, man. Adam and Eve had perfectly functioning minds until they installed an update offered by a serpent (Genesis 3:1). Shortly thereafter, they had a stop error that included a message from God to stop living in the Garden of Eden.
Since then, we have all been living with imperfect minds that can produce critical errors. The Israelites installed an update for something to lead them to the Promised Land since Moses had been on Mt Sinai a long time (Exodus 32). Their system crashed because of a golden calf update, and they would experience the equivalent of the blue screen of death, a plague (32:35), as well as the death of the whole generation because of their unfaithfulness (Numbers 14:26-32).
At the deepest levels of our heart and mind we have defects leading to all kinds of evil that will destroy us (Proverbs 6:12-15). Offering sacrifices or living by our own standards may give us a sense of worthiness, but it is really just overheating our thought processes to the point of stop errors in our commitment to the Lord.
In the postmodern world we are offered updates so bizarre and complex we think they must surely work. Put something up your nose. Swallow a pill. Join a cult. Tear out pages of the Bible, keep what suits you. Change your identity. The list goes on.
Perhaps one of the most popular fixes is to turn God off and on 15 times. Attend worship awhile and then stop going for a year or so. Come back when there are cantatas. Pray as long as it feels good, when it doesn’t, stop. Resume when you have a need. Live as you would six days a week, then ask the Lord to forgive you on Sunday.
The Son of God brought to earth the only fix possible for our spiritual blue screen of death (John 3:16). Confessed faith in Jesus gives us a whole new operating system (2 Corinthians 5:17). The blue screen of our sinful life is replaced by a white robe of eternal life (Revelation 3:5).
Nomads2 
Timely, yes sir, and ma’am this is timely! 👍
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