For Good or For Evil

I’m on the board of directors for an organization in SE Asia, and have been for going on 8 years now. My fellow board members have become a second family to me. As with any group of people scattered around the globe, it’s not often we get to meet face-to-face. We try to do at least two board meetings in-person each year (one in the US and one in Asia), with the rest being via Zoom.

I don’t remember how it happened, but about 18 months ago, one of the board members came up with the idea of doing book studies together. After a bit of planning, we were off and running. Twice per month, we gather via Zoom to catch up, spend time together, and learn. The time doesn’t work great for anyone, as it’s Friday night for us in the Western Hemisphere and early Saturday morning for others in the Eastern Hemisphere. However, it’s always a beautiful time and it fills my bucket immensely.

It always gets me thinking about the power of technology. Because of technology, we’re able to meet as a board, spend time doing a book study, build relationships, and collaborate on new projects. One person even gave a video tour of his new house during last night’s call.

Yes, technology, like all the resources we possess, can be used for evil. Destructive and devastating evil. It’s easy to point our fingers at it and give it our wholesale blame. Like many things, however, technology doesn’t have morals. It’s just a tool. It takes on the values, morals, and behavior of those using it. We can use it for good, or we can use it for evil. Social media, podcasts, YouTube….the list goes on. The crazy part is most of the technological tools at our fingertips are either free or very inexpensive. Billions of people, limited financial hurdles, instant access, and very few barriers to entry. This is the opportunity in front of us. We can either shun technology (or insert any of your other resources here), or we can use it for good. I for one choose to use it for good.

In a world flooded with bad intentions and gross negativity, we each have an opportunity to bend the culture the other way. It often seems like the bad far outweighs the good….enough to make us feel like our contributions don’t even matter. But what if I add something good, you add something good, and the next person does the same? What if we all got intentional about using our resources for good? Could we change the world? There’s only one way to find out.