I forgot how. But it’s kind of like riding a bike. It all comes rushing back fairly quickly.

I’m practicing because I want to build my hand endurance and get back to the place where the cursive becomes second nature and works in the back ground.

It’s no secret that hand-writing is better for the brain than typing. And cursive is the better of the two hand-writing options. (Something about the continuous flow instead of the stilted staccato of printing individual letters.)

But, back to the typing thing! It is a very interesting technology. Typing is good at recording your thoughts quickly. Although handwriting accesses different parts of the brain and helps you integrate and process your thoughts.

I would go one step further and say that handwriting actually shapes and affects the thoughts themselves.

Because as Neil Postman reminds us “the medium is the message.”

In other words, you will end up writing different things based on whether you’re typing or hand-writing.

C.S. Lewis famously disliked the clickity clack of type writers and talked about how the pace of handwriting allowed him more space to think.

He would have to pause for short intervals in order to allow the ink to dry on the page.

These little moments had an outsized affect on his writing.

How many edits did he notice, or new ideas appeared? And how many digressions and false assumptions was he able to prevent because of these pauses?

In this way the ink itself became an editor of sorts.

Because technologies are not neutral. Their effect on our lives are incalculable.

And speed isn’t everything. In fact, it becomes a disadvantage if you are headed in the wrong direction.

So, I’m practicing cursive. Trying to live at a more human pace and scale.

What are your ways of standing up against the inhuman machine of our times?

Driving in silence?

Driving one mile below the speed limit? (Try it lol)

Praying more?

Getting outside?

let me know

“Deliver my soul from the wicked… from men of the world whose portion is in this life.”

• Psalm 17:14

“But Abraham said, “Child remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.”

• Luke 16:25

“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither“

• C.S. Lewis “Mere Christianity”

The Bible tells us that there is a way in which to have earthly success and eternal failure.

A way of life that sets our attention and affection on this world only for it to end abruptly and then we are faced with our folly forever.

The psalmist literally asked God to be delivered from such men. “Men of the world whose portion is in this life.”

Is your portion in this life? What is your end game? What are you aiming for?

A thriving business maybe? A happy family? Influence over the affairs of men?

If those are your ultimate and final goals in life, God would invite you to a better way. A way that will save you from the misery of seeing it all evaporate in the fire of God’s judgment seat.

Make heaven your aim! Make eternal rewards your goal!

And as Lewis said, the more we set our eyes on heaven the more effective we will be on earth.

There is a way that we can have success here that will actually transfer into heaven. When we set our hearts on God and make him our ultimate goal! A happy family, a thriving business, and influence in the world can all be for God’s glory and the blessing of others.

But there is a deeper part of this conversation, and it’s this; are you willing to give up temporary pleasure for eternal glory?

Are you willing to say no to immediate gratification in this life for infinite joy?

In the parable of the rich man and lazarus in Luke 16 we see these terrible and sobering words.

“That you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.”

The rich man was living a life that greedily consumed all of his rewards and pleasures in this life, and it turned him into the kind of man that ended up in hell.

The poor man Lazarus experienced suffering in this life, yet became the kind of man that ended up in heaven.

How we handle pleasure and suffering in this life shapes our hearts in very deep ways.

So much so that we can be transformed into people who reject God because we want temporary satisfaction.

Or we can say, “God you are my joy! You are my pleasure!” And we become the people that will receive unimaginable rewards in heaven.

God help us today to aim for heaven! To forgo any momentary pleasure that would keep us from loving You.

Cal Newport in his book “Digital Minimalism” had an interesting definition of solitude. He defines it as not just being alone, but by removing all external inputs of information.

That solitude is less about physical isolation and more about being alone with your own thoughts.

In other words, you could be by yourself in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness but still be listening to a podcast you downloaded.

Or on some far flung beach with not a soul in sight, but your head is stuck in a book.

These things are not solitude.

In both of these cases, some sort of third party information has intruded on the moment. And whether it be an audible voice from the phone or a silent voice from the page, your mind is occupied, not with the thoughts of your heart, but with someone else’s thoughts.

Solitude cannot exist when another human voice is involved.

Now notice I said human voice.

Because as Christians we know that we are never truly alone. God is always with us. Both speaking and listening.

And that solitude is ultimately not about us getting to know ourselves, but getting to know Him.

But how can we hear Him or talk to Him when we’re constantly listening or talking to others?

Solitude is the answer my friends!

Try it. Get somewhere quiet. Jesus gave us the practical recommendation of a closet with a door that can be closed. And of course, He himself would often go into the wilderness to get away from the external inputs of his disciples questions or the domestic bustle of village life.

But get alone. Get quiet. And do the thing you most fear. Let your thoughts rise.

Is there an anxious one? Cast it on the Lord! (1 Peter 5:7)

Is there a hopeful one? Dream and talk about your future with God! (Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 139:14-18)

But the only external input allowed in this moment is the still small voice of God himself.

There will be other times for reading or listening to podcasts. (Hopefully way more of one than the other. Books people! BOOKS!)

But this is Christian solitude. Where our hearts finally have permission to pour themselves out at the feet of Jesus.

Where other voices, no matter how good, do not get to dominate our attention. Only the voice of God himself.

You will be amazed at what pain you’ve been carrying that He is there to heal.

What instruction and conviction you need to feel about an area in your life that is out of alignment.

What dreams have been waiting to be considered.

Get alone. Turn off the external voices. And talk to God.

But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another-slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their au-tonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distrac-tions." In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us.

Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.

☝️ The previous passage was written by Neil Postman as the forward to his book “Amusing Ourselves to Death” published in the year 1985.

I would encourage you to read it and heed his prophetic advice from 40 years ago.

Find ways to detach your life from the algorithm.

Draw lines in the sand and stay behind them.

It matters much less where the lines are drawn than it is that they are held to.

Is your line, “I will have not smart phone.”? Good. Then stick to it.

Is it, “I will use AI, but only for research and not for creative thinking.”?

Is it limiting smartphone screen time to two hours a day?

Fine. But please do something!

Please be the one who is actively determining your limits. If you don’t, you will be steamrolled by what is coming.

Small bands of rebellious readers huddle in bunkers poring over the last known copies of "Paradise Lost", "The Iliad", and Melania Trump's memoir.

This scenario, while something that fifty years ago did seem plausible, is now complete nonsense.

It will never happen because it doesn’t need to anymore.

Because in fact something far worse has already happened.

In his 17th century tract "Aeropagitica" (thank you Karen Swallow Prior for introducing me to this work) John Milton argued something counterintuitive.

Milton, a man known for his strict piety and brilliant mind grounded in deep devotion to Christ, made a shocking argument in this little book.

He argued for a world in which books should be allowed to be "promiscuously read".

His thesis? That truth is so powerful, if people are given the opportunity to read from diverse sources, that it will win out in the end. And that it is only in a world that suppresses certain ideas and books, that truth becomes obscured and harder to find.

For example, a young person reads some silly book putting nonsense ideas in their heads. This is only a problem if they stop their reading there. If they are allowed to keep reading broadly and deeply they will, in the end, find the truth. And those weaker ideas will be exposed for what they are.

The problem then, is not reading the wrong books, but in not reading a broad array of books.

This is why free speech is so important. That when we suppress certain ideas (even though we may passionately disagree with them) we are creating the framework for a world where truth is hard to find.

So, thank God we don't live in that dystopian world right?!

Right?!?!

Well, we thought that censorship was going to come from a centralized politburo in Washington D.C. But in reality it happened in Silicon Valley. And it wasn't old men in suits, it was twenty year olds in hoodies.

In John Milton's time, the public discourse was happening through published books and tracts. And whoever controlled the laws regulating the publishing business controlled what people could read. (Milton saw this and spoke up!)

But now, whether we like it or not, the exchange of ideas happens in digital spaces.

Your news feed on X and your for you page on Instagram or Tiktok is controlled by an algorithm. A highly sophisticated, and opaque, AI that is controlling what you see on your feed.

It turns out that ideas never had to be banned, just hidden from us.

Instead of a world where dissent was punished, it is just made irrelevant.

Now, everyone is shouting their free speech at the top of their lungs, not scared of any blowback, but the only people hearing their rants are the people who already agree with them. And the algorithm makes sure of that.

None of us are doing the type of reading that Milton suggested. We are, each one, just digging ourselves deeper into our own silos. We are not reading widely and engaging with other ideas even though they are accessible to us!

Because given the choice between searching out competing ideas or just passively consuming what the algorithm serves up, we choose the easy dopamine hit.

Our natural aversion to inconvenience is being weaponized against us.

What's the solution?

Well get off of your phone and go read a book first of all.

And if you have to be on digital spaces make sure to go and search out competing claims and more sources of information. But as I said earlier, good luck with that. Because on on these apps you are going up against forces much stronger than you.

So, the library is now punk rock. It is rebellious.

Go read a book you wouldn't normally read. If the ideas in it are stupid, then get a pen and argue with the author in the margins! It will be good for your mind and only strengthen your beliefs. If the book is unbearable then by all means throw it across the room after the first chapter. But please do read!

Read about subjects and places that are unfamiliar to you. You will learn things. Read all types of fiction books which, when written well, have a formative effect on us.

This is also true for the bible. Don't just find lists of your favorite scriptures. Read widely within the bible itself! Come up against the uncomfortable passages and the difficult demands of scripture.

Truth will always win when given an equal playing field.

But be wise, and realize that we are in a new kind of world. One that requires us to fight against silent forces of censorship.

“The vices are, indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. Thus some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless. Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.”

I can’t help but think of the phenomenon of the masculine podcast over the past ten years.

The rise of Joe Rogan, Jocko Willink, David Goggins, Jordan Peterson and others.

They filled a void that the Church had left with men. Becoming a refuge for guys who had been told by liberals that they were toxic and by the Church that they were failures.

But the safe harbor of the masculine stoics will not last.

When good things like discipline and fortitude are isolated from the other virtues (and from the God who made them) they will become at best something that is momentarily helpful but ultimately meaningless, or at worst a monstrous self-obsession.

The same is true for the phenomenon of the therapeutic podcast. Experts in mindfulness, self-care, mental health, and dealing with past trauma.

It is virtuous to be emotionally healthy.

But even the best of these practices can only provide tools to give us a moderately happy life, and at worst they become endless cycles of vain self-soothing and idle words.

We are at an odd point in history where the sinful excesses of previous decades have made their mess and people are looking for an alternate way to the good life. They are finding hints of this life in the scattered virtues!

But if only they found the fountainhead of virtue. The one from whom it all flows. And the one who gives it all meaning.

In following Christ, we not only get self-control but love too. A burning desire for justice and a heart softened with mercy. Healing in our souls that leads not to endless self-reflection but to selfless service.

We get confidence that comes from knowing how awesome our God is, and humility from knowing how weak we are.

In other words, we don’t get the sad and siloed virtues of the podcasters. We get the interconnected fruit of the Spirit! Love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, self-control. And it is exactly that, fruit. An organic eco-system of virtues that grow from one vine, Christ himself.

Jesus is the answer!

Need discipline? We have Proverbs! (By the way, it is much more intense than any former Navy seal could be.)

Need inner healing? We have total forgiveness and peace that is in the grace of God!

Everything you are looking for is in Him.

I must first give the disclaimer that I am preaching to myself here. I am far from perfect.

And I’m not the first person to notice this but I have to say it; something is gravely wrong in the American Church.

We should look like a body of believers who have been saved by grace and are DEVOTED to obeying God’s word.

No compartmentalization of our lives from the biblical demands we don’t happen to like.

A common problem in the American Church is people who say to God (and to His people) “this far but no further.”

Whether they realize it or not, they are drawing boundaries in their lives that God is not allowed to cross.

Which is the tragedy of all tragedies because there was no depth that Jesus not willing to go for us.

Why would we resist the invitations to glory (which is what has commands really are) when this is a call we never deserved in the first place?

It is the height of wickedness to look up on the cross with an entitled yawn and then return to our life as usual.

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.“

- Matthew 16:24

Take up their cross. What a grave and glorious that invitation is.

Grave because of the unknown cost and glorious for its unimaginable rewards.

God help us to grasp that even the most painful of sacrifices for You are pinpricks compared to the wonders we will receive in exchange!

God’s most costly of commands are still like asking a child to give up a common rock in exchange for a polished diamond.

If only we could see the true nature of things! Our inheritance in Christ that is free and limitless!

But instead we hold onto tiny trinkets rather than eternal glory and present peace.

Lay down your life and take up His! Let Him in to the places you have barred Him access. Find His commands that you have avoided and treat them like the treasures they are.

This is the Church that Jesus died and rose again to build.

It’s happening very fast. And while yes, there is certainly a lot of A.I. “snake oil” out there promising all sorts of unrealistic timelines, the underlying claims of the A.I. revolution are still troubling.

Then add in the bio tech component and it get’s really interesting for Christians.

Today I was having lunch with my 15 year old son and I asked him “What are you going to do when you feel pressured to put a chip in your brain?”

I know, I know.

Wouldn’t you like me as your parent?!

I saw that Apple announced they are working towards integrating their devices with the human brain.

The peer pressure is coming.

I think there will even be an argument made by leaders in the faith community soon saying:

“Paul used the Roman highway system, Luther the printing press, why wouldn’t we super charge our brains in order to do more for God’s glory?”

Oh believe me it’s coming.

I’m trying to prepare my 15 year old for it. And myself.

What happens in a world where we have reached AGI, and then can connect our brains to this truly genius artificial intelligence?

Do you know what an advantage that would be? Do you know how productive and successful these people could potentially become? It will be akin to a super power.

Now think of how backwards, narrow, and foolish you will seem if you resist it.

Think of how you will feel left behind and all the fears and insecurities that come along with that.

We have to understand what God would have us do. And we better have those answers soon.

So, in order to get the conversation started here are my: “10 Reasons I’ll Say No to a Brain Chip”

1. We are creative beings and dependence on AI will neglect and quickly degrade our God given ability to create. This is a sin against our design.

2. Our bodies are not our own and it is a sin to do damage to it. This applies to food, drink, reckless behavior and certainly to a computer interface in our brain whose affects are completely unknown.

3. Paul makes a distinction regarding sexual sin that it is worse because it is “sinning against our own bodies”. And that certainly could be said for implanting tech in our bodies that at best will deeply alter our thinking and at worst override it altogether.

4. Small sins lead to great damage. The saints of old were willing to die than commit the smallest sin. Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego were willing to be burned in a furnace over the simple matter of bowing to a statue! But they know that ultimately there are no small sins, because there is no small God to sin against.

5. Gambling with the ownership our minds is dishonoring to God. There is a small chance that people who interface with AI will retain their autonomy and free thinking. But there is a significant chance that the worst happens and we are effectively controlled by the thing we thought would help us. Would it be a sin to play Russian roulette with a pistol? Certainly! And gambling with the possible destruction of our God given minds is no different.

6. We are commanded to love the Lord with ALL of our mind. How can we do that while giving our brains over (even partially) to another entity.

7. The first and most damaging sin of all was about this very topic. Adam and Even were tempted by having access to super knowledge. Satan lied to them about God’s intent and hid the consequences. Are we naive enough to think he is not doing them same thing now?

8. Previous uses of technology by Christians are of a different order altogether. If you believe that AI and biotech are the same as the Roman highway system, the printing press, and the internet, then I don’t think you’ve done enough research on this topic. The above mentioned technologies gave our bodies access to places, and our minds access to information. AIxBIOTECH is the very opposite. It gives something access to US. And this something (AGI or ASI) will be able to manipulate us in ways that visiting a new city or reading a new book could not.

9. There’s no indication that the proper guardrails are being put into place even in the AI space, much less the bio tech front. There is an arms race and gold rush happening right now. And based on human history do you really think we are going to handle this well? That all of this will tend to God’s definition of human flourishing?

10. None of us are perfectly certain about what the mark of the beast will actually look like. But you would have to really be fooling yourself if you think that AI brain chips are not a real contender!

This is just a conversation starter. And these are just the first 10 reasons that came to my mind as I sat down to write this. What are yours?

We have to keep thinking and praying through this. Because it’s coming quickly and the Church has to stand strong.

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

Ephesians 5:15-17

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