The "Y2K" computer challenge is unprecedented in technological history in terms of its scope and complexity. However, we all have powerful authority for demonstrating the ability to solve any problem through reliance on God. Throughout the Scriptures there are moving examples of what God can do when men and women lean on His presence, power, and love. The account of David and Goliath, for example, provides some particularly helpful lessons. See I Samuel, chap. 17 . Goliath was intimidating, not only because of his immense size but also because of his seemingly impervious armor. (A phrase often used to describe the Y2K problem is "difficult to penetrate.") Yet David's confidence to meet and overcome the challenge was not based on his experience or training in formal battle; it was the outcome of his confidence that God would protect him and properly equip him, just as He had done previously in other types of experiences.
It's also noteworthy that David was not influenced by the general mental climate of fear and dismay. He proclaimed to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine." So to face Y2K, or any challenge, with poise, a first step is to be alert to the mental climate surrounding the problem, to be watchful not to be influenced by fear.
We can be alert as to what we accept as truth. Confronted with conflicting predictions and expectations, we can exercise a higher level of discernment and not simply rely on human opinion. Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy tells us: "The Science of Christianity comes with fan in hand to separate the chaff from the wheat. Science will declare God aright, and Christianity will demonstrate this declaration and its divine Principle, making mankind better physically, morally, and spiritually." Science and Health, p. 466. In the same book is this spiritual definition of fan: "Separator of fable from fact; that which gives action to thought." Ibid., p. 586.
