TI not AI in the coming Storm

According to a recent CNBC report, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, will invest 60-65 billion dollars in AI research in 2025. Add in Alphabet, Nvidia, Microsoft and Amazon and the scope of what lies ahead in Artificial Intelligence is unimaginable. Everything from our banking to our how our refrigerator works will be affected. Our children’s education, what we see on television, listen to on the radio or receive in the mail will be driven by forces far greater than any Madison Avenue marketing firm could have imagined even a decade ago. So, unless we plan on entering a monastery or joining the Amish community, we Christians need to determine now rather than later how we will respond.

First, let’s all, take a deep breath and remember that the beginning of wisdom, (True Intelligence) is the fear of the Lord. Our God, who with one word spoke light into existence, filled the universe with stars and created our each of our bodies with 30 trillion cells, is a lot smarter than any Artificial Intelligence anyone can come up with! Living for Jesus means trusting in Him, and bringing our problems, fears, and questions to Him every day, including every challenge the world throws our way. We don’t have to figure everything out. God already knows the future and He has promised an eternal kingdom to those who place their trust in Him.

Secondly, God is not surprised. In the last chapter of Daniel, God tells Daniel that in days to come, people will run faster and faster and that knowledge will increase. (Sound familiar?) But then God tells him to go about his business, assures him of His peace, reminds Daniel that as he takes a stand, he will be blessed. (Daniel 12:13 KJV). I am confident that this promise was reassuring to the aging prophet Daniel, but it is also great advice for us today. It is easy to lose our head, worrying about what might happen tomorrow, but we don’t need to worry about tomorrow today. We just need to focus on what God has given us for now. God knows what is coming and already has a plan in place. So, let’s trust Him as we do what He has given us today, and trust that He is smarter than anything the world will ever come up with!

Last, invest time, energy, and resources in people, not things. Jesus was far less impressed by Herod’s spectacular temple complex than He was by the heart a poor widow who gave two pennies into its treasury. Jesus allowed Himself to be arrested, stripped of His clothing, and nailed to a cross to purchase what mattered most to Him: the salvation of you and me! Let’s get our focus off of the latest gadgets being marketed to us and ask God how to follow the True Intelligence of Jesus Christ by serving hurting people in His name. Compared to the power of AI, the ways of God may sound foolish, but the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God and His glory can shine brightest through cracked clay jars filled with the light of Jesus Christ.

Listening

Pain is an effective teacher when it comes to listening. All the braggadocio kind of vanishes in the midst of the moment by moment struggle to get through. Know it all attitudes like mine evaporate and a longing for hearing wise counsel bursts up through the rock like soil of a proud heart.

My recent eye surgery and the terrible recovery period I have already begun remind me of the Apostle Paul’s blindness. Paul had proudly set off for Damascus with all of the answers and no questions at all. But his encounter on the road with Jesus left him in a state of helplessness. He learned he needed to listen and be willing to accept counsel from whoever God chose to send.

How good it is of our Lord to share with us in His fellowship of suffering. We draw nearer to His bleeding side and become ready to listen to anyone he sends with wise counsel.