Category: The Bereans

Several years ago, I was interviewing a medical resident applicant for our dermatology residency program. During these interviews, I like to ask questions that may give me a glimpse of their true personality. One of my favorite questions is, “I congratulate you on reaching this point in your career. Obviously you have made many good decisions, but looking back upon your life, either professional or personal, are there any decisions that you have made that, in retrospect, you now think may have been a mistake? And if so, how did you deal with it?”

Some residents were completely caught off guard by this question. In fact, one resident was so flustered that two days after the interview, I received a handwritten letter from her, explaining in great detail why she was flustered and what she felt was her mistake. I greatly admired her courage, honesty, and humility.

However, another resident left an equally vivid impression upon me. When I asked her the question, without missing a beat, she leaned across the table and stated, “Doctor, I have NEVER made a mistake!”

Whoa.

“You just did.” I thought to myself.

Confidence is an important attribute for a physician. But humility must be mated with this confidence.

As I reflect upon this incident, I am reminded how the world substitutes the pride of intelligence and education for success. Refusing to admit to making mistakes or never admitting to making a wrong decision may be viewed by the world as a sign of success, but it is also a sure sign of pride, at its ugliest.

The prophet Habakkuk reminds us that such pride and values are misplaced. God values and justifies a person who is righteous and stands for Him in the face of evil and opposition.

Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.
Habakkuk 2:4

Everyone makes a mistake. And try as we might to hide our mistakes, all of our fears, failures, and trials are seen by God. He knows the deepest secrets of our heart. And He is willing to go where we may fear, into the places and memories where we are most vulnerable and weakest.

Will you let Him into your heart? If you confess your sins, repent, and call upon the name of Jesus Christ and accept Him as your Lord and Savior, He will come into your heart and reign in your life. And all the sins, the painful memories, will be scattered as far as the east is from the west. You will be forgiven and sanctified by His precious blood.

Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #Habakkuk2:4 #Ihavenevermadeamistate #interviews

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My residency training observed a strict hierarchy among the attending physicians, professors, and resident physicians. We were instructed to address all attending physicians as Doctors. Some habits die hard. Even after we graduated and left the program, most of us felt uncomfortable addressing former attendings and professors by their first names.

One professor made it easy for all of us. I had not interacted with him for about 5 years since graduation. One day, I consulted with him about a problematic case that I was reviewing. I called him on the phone and when he answered in his familiar voice, I replied, “Hi, Dr. Smith! It’s Paul.”

Without missing a beat, he said, “It’s Stuart. Call me Stuart.”

The silence on the phone betrayed my obvious confusion.

“Paul, when you were a resident, it was Dr. Smith. Now that we are colleagues, we are on a first-name basis.”

Got it! We were now equals and colleagues, regardless of whether I felt I deserved to be dignified with that status. I felt privileged and apprehensive at the same time, privileged to be considered an equal, apprehensive that I would not live up to his expectations.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Romans 8:16-17 (ESV)

Privileged and apprehensive. This is how I sometimes feel as a believer in Jesus Christ and a child of God. By trusting in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I have been adopted as a fellow heir of Jesus Christ; God views me as His son. I am privileged to be dignified with this status. I am also apprehensive since I know I will never live up to the expectations of God. By my own efforts, I will never live up to God’s expectations, nor would I even deserve to be viewed as worthy to stand before Him. I am a sinner by birth and nature. It is only by the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ that I can be accepted as a child of God and stand before Him. I have the privilege to address God as my Father. And I need not be apprehensive because God continues to transform and conform me to the image of His Son Jesus Christ, through the renewing and sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit.

Amen!

Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.

She was born in Afghanistan. Her family was prospering, and she graduated from medical school, training to become a surgeon. Then the Russian invasion occurred. She and her family escaped Afghanistan and lived as refugees in Pakistan and several other countries before eventually arriving in the United States.

Her parents had also been professionals in Afghanistan, but in these other countries, their education and credentials did not qualify them for the same jobs. They did whatever work they could find, including restaurant and janitorial work. She did the same.

Imagine graduating from medical school and training to become a surgeon, then finding yourself in another country where none of that training seemed to matter. Yet she had not given up on medicine. Eventually, she applied for a position in an accredited American pathology residency program.

At the time, I was the chief resident in our pathology program and participated in interviewing applicants. She sat before me and told us her story. I don’t remember her grades. I don’t remember her test scores. I don’t remember what was written in her letters of recommendation. But I remember her. As she spoke, one word kept coming into my mind.

Grit.

It is something almost every employer wants. You can have intelligence, education and talent. But what happens when things don’t go according to plan? What happens when the path you expected suddenly disappears? Do you keep going? That was what impressed me about her.

Her life had taken a turn she certainly had never planned. She had gone from medical school and surgical training to being a refugee, working wherever she could while trying to find a way back into medicine. And there she was, sitting in front of us. Still trying.

But that raises another question. What if you don’t think you have grit? Are some people simply born with it, while the rest of us aren’t? Once again, Scripture gives us the answer.

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
Romans 5:3–4 (ESV)

I don’t think Paul was telling us to enjoy suffering. He was telling us that suffering can produce something. Endurance. And endurance produces character. Perhaps grit isn’t simply something you either have or don’t have. It may be something that develops when we keep moving forward through circumstances we would never have chosen for ourselves.

Looking back, I don’t know if that young physician would have described herself as having grit. I suspect she was simply doing what she needed to do, one day at a time, hoping that somewhere ahead another door would open. Maybe that is what grit usually looks like.

And if you are going through something difficult right now, perhaps the better question isn’t, “Why is this happening to me?” It may be: “What is God developing in me through this?”

Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #grit #Romans5:3-4

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She dropped out of Stanford University at the age of 19 to found her own company. Within 11 years, she was one of Silicon Valley’s darlings, appearing on the cover of Fortune magazine. She was once worth approximately $4.5 billion and was lauded as one of the richest self-made women in the world. Wealthy families and prominent investors eagerly invested in her company. She was honored by former presidents, government officials, and industry leaders.

She is Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the Palo Alto company Theranos.

The company touted a disruptive and innovative medical technology. Instead of the usual venipuncture needed to obtain tubes of blood for laboratory testing, only a few drops of blood from a finger stick would be required. Theranos claimed that its proprietary blood analyzer could perform hundreds of laboratory tests using only a fraction of the usual amount of blood.

There were no adequate published scientific studies to verify many of these claims. Nevertheless, numerous investors were willing to back the company. Walgreens agreed with Theranos and began offering its tests in more than 40 locations.

The cracks began to appear in October 2015 after an investigation by The Wall Street Journal questioned the claims and accuracy of the company’s blood-testing technology. The article revealed that Theranos was performing many of its tests on conventional laboratory instruments rather than its own analyzer.

Other laboratory professionals and company insiders had raised similar concerns. Pathologists, clinical chemists, and laboratory scientists understood that claims of this magnitude required independent validation. Laboratory testing must be accurate, reproducible, and subjected to strict quality-control standards. A convincing presentation cannot substitute for scientific evidence when the health of patients is at stake.

 

As calls for government scrutiny increased, federal inspectors found numerous deficiencies in the Theranos laboratory. Regulators eventually revoked the laboratory’s certification and prohibited Holmes from owning or operating a laboratory for two years. Walgreens terminated its relationship with Theranos, lawsuits followed, and the company dissolved in 2018.

The emperor truly had no clothes.

Unfortunately, this was not merely a story about wealthy investors losing their money. Thousands of patients had received Theranos laboratory results. Some results were inaccurate or unreliable, causing patients needless concern, repeated testing, confusion, and the possibility of inappropriate medical decisions.

In 2018, Holmes settled civil fraud charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. She paid a $500,000 penalty, surrendered control of Theranos, returned millions of shares, and was prohibited from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years.

The criminal case continued. In January 2022, Holmes was convicted of conspiracy and three counts of wire fraud involving Theranos investors. She was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison and began serving her sentence in May 2023. She and former Theranos executive Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani were also ordered to pay $452 million in restitution to the victims of their fraud.

Her collapse was as stupendous as her meteoric rise.

A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.
Proverbs 11:1 (ESV)

This proverb and its underlying principle are repeated many times in the Bible. (Leviticus 19:35–36; Deuteronomy 25:13–16; Ezekiel 45:9–10; Amos 8:4–6; Hosea 12:7–8; Micah 6:10–14; Proverbs 16:11; Proverbs 20:10; and Proverbs 20:23.)

If God, through the Holy Spirit, repeatedly instructed His prophets to record this principle, we should pay attention. While the verse may be taken at face value, its deeper message concerns honesty in business and in life. In biblical times, a dishonest merchant might use inaccurate weights to deceive a customer. Theranos used unreliable measurements while convincing patients and investors that those measurements could be trusted.

 

The lessons of Theranos will be debated in business and medical schools for many years. How could so many intelligent and accomplished people have been fooled? Why did prominent investors place so much money into a medical technology that had not been adequately validated? Why were the people asking difficult scientific questions ignored?

There were failures in judgment, corporate governance, laboratory oversight, and professional responsibility. However, the deeper problem was the same problem that has existed throughout human history: our sinful nature.

It would be easy to read this story and condemn Elizabeth Holmes. Her deception was enormous, public, and destructive. Our own dishonesty may appear much smaller. We may exaggerate our accomplishments, conceal our failures, or say what others want to hear because we are afraid of losing their approval. We may begin by bending the truth only slightly, but a false balance remains a false balance.

God demands the same high ethical standards from us in our personal lives, our professions, and our businesses. He sees not only what we do but also the motives behind our actions. God must continually remind us that we will continue to fail and live by deceptive moral principles until we acknowledge that our sins have separated us from the loving God who created us.

What can we do?

We need to confess and repent of our sins and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Only then can the destructive cycle of sin begin to be reversed as the Holy Spirit transforms us into the image of Jesus Christ.

Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #theranos #Proverbs11:1 #ElizabethHolmes

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I recently turned 64 years young. When I first heard the Beatles sing “When I’m Sixty-Four,” 64 sounded impossibly old. It belonged to people who tended gardens, took Sunday drives, and had trouble remembering where they put things. I have spent the past two hours searching for my keys. Apparently, the Beatles were singing about me.

The song is playful, but beneath the humor is a tender question: “Will you still need me, will you still feed me?” When I was younger, I heard that as a funny line about growing old together. At 64, it sounds different. The real question is not about food. It is about love. Will you still want me when I am older? Will I still matter when I am no longer the person I used to be? Will there still be a place for me? I suspect most of us wonder about that, even if we never say it aloud. 

When I was young, I assumed a 64-year-old had life figured out. He knew where he had been, where he was going, and certainly where he had left his keys. I can now report that this is not necessarily true. At 64, I have accumulated experience, memories, and more guitars than I once thought I needed. I have also accumulated reading glasses, occasional aches, and a growing appreciation for restaurants where I can actually hear the conversation.

Some things have changed. The face in the mirror is older. Time moves faster. The years that once seemed endless now feel precious. But I do not feel finished. In some ways, I feel more curious than ever. For nearly 40 years, much of my identity came from medicine. I looked through a microscope, diagnosed disease, taught residents, and carried the responsibility of giving doctors and patients the right answer. It was meaningful work, and I remain grateful that God allowed me to do it.

Then retirement arrived. I wondered whether leaving my profession would make life smaller. Instead, my days filled with things I had postponed, things I had forgotten I loved, and things I never expected to be doing at 64. I am writing. I am making videos. I am playing guitar and recording music. I am learning technology that did not exist when I began practicing medicine. Some days I create more before lunch than I once thought possible in a week.

 

Retirement has not felt like disappearing. It has felt like changing instruments while the song continues. Of course, life is not only projects and music. I have been blessed with a wife who has walked beside me through the demanding years of building careers, raising children, and creating a home. Our daughter is building a life and career of her own. Our son continues to teach me that love is not measured by achievement, speed, or independence. At 64, family feels less like something I built and more like something God graciously gave me.

The Beatles wondered whether love would survive growing older. I have learned that real love does more than survive. It changes. It becomes less concerned with romance as a feeling and more concerned with presence, patience, forgiveness, and staying. That question from the song remains surprisingly relevant.

After retirement, it is easy to wonder whether the world still needs you. The phone rings less often. Decisions that once required your opinion are now made without you. A title that took decades to earn can disappear from daily life almost overnight. But perhaps “Am I still needed?” is not the best question. The better question may be, “Lord, how do You want to use me now?”

Once again, Scripture gives us the answer:

They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green.
Psalm 92:14 (ESV)

I like that verse, although I am not quite ready to place myself in the “old age” category. Let us call 64 an extended middle age with a better perspective. The promise is not that we will remain young. We will not. The promise is that growing older does not make us useless to God. There is still fruit to bear. Perhaps it will be a different fruit. I may no longer serve God in the same ways I did at 40 or 50. That is all right. God is not limited to one season of our lives, and He is not impressed by the titles we sometimes mistake for our identity.

So what is it like to be 64? It is humbling. It is funny. It is occasionally uncomfortable. It is also a gift. I know more clearly that time is limited, but I also understand more deeply that time is not mine to waste. There are still songs to play, words to write, places to see, people to love, and truths worth sharing.

When I was young, 64 sounded like the final verse. Now that I am here, I know better.

It may only be the beginning of the second chorus.

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #wheni’m64 #Psalm92:14

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On my last trip to Hawaiʻi, I was surprised by how much reggae I heard. It was on the radio, in hotels, in restaurants, and in shopping areas. But after listening for a while, I realized it wasn’t exactly the reggae I associated with Jamaica. The rhythm was familiar, but the music had changed. Hawaiian words, local themes, and distinctly Hawaiian sounds were mixed in.

I later learned there is a name for it:

Jawaiian.

Jamaican and Hawaiian music blended together.

I found that fascinating. Two cultures, thousands of miles apart, somehow meeting through music. And it made me think about Christianity. Jesus was Jewish. His disciples were Jewish. The earliest church began in the Middle East. The events recorded in the New Testament took place in a culture very different from ours. And yet Christianity did not stay there. 

Today people follow Christ in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, the Pacific Islands, and almost everywhere else in the world. Most of those people have never been to Israel. Many have never met a Jewish person. Yet somehow the message still becomes personal. That was never an accident. Jesus told His disciples to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).

The gospel was meant to cross borders. But what is striking is that Christianity does not require every culture to become Jewish, Middle Eastern, European, or American. The gospel enters a culture without requiring that culture to become someone else. A Christian in Hawaiʻi can worship Christ in a way that sounds Hawaiian. A Christian in Korea can worship in Korean. A believer in Africa may sing with rhythms and instruments completely unfamiliar to someone in Europe. The expressions are different. The object of worship is the same.

That distinction is important, because sometimes we confuse Christianity with the particular form of Christianity we know best. Our music. Our church buildings. Our traditions. Our way of doing things. But those things are cultural. Christ is not.

John describes the final picture this way:

…a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages…
Revelation 7:9 (ESV)

That verse says something remarkable. The people are united, but they have not become identical. There are still nations. Still peoples. Still languages. They are different, yet they are gathered around the same Lord. That may be what struck me most about Jawaiian music. Something can travel a long distance, enter another culture, and be expressed in a new way without losing what made it recognizable in the first place.

The gospel has traveled much farther. It began in one small part of the world, but it was never meant for only one people. It was meant for everyone.

Including us.

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

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Many years ago, while still an undergraduate, I worked in a medical research laboratory alongside nearly two dozen other students. We were all eager pre-meds, ambitious and determined to distinguish ourselves. On the surface, everyone appeared friendly and supportive. But beneath that collegial exterior, competition was intense—a culture sometimes described as “pre-med syndrome.” Some students would shower their classmates with praise, only to whisper criticisms about them later to the attending physicians. They acted like friends while quietly trying to undermine one another.

Today, we have a word for people like that: frenemies.

A frenemy is someone who seems like a friend but, in some ways, acts like an enemy. The friendship may even seem genuine. There may be warm conversations, generous compliments, and frequent expressions of support. Yet underneath it all, there is jealousy, competition, or resentment. A frenemy praises you to your face but may not speak so kindly when you leave the room.

The word is relatively new, but the behavior certainly is not.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
Proverbs 27:6 (ESV)

At first, this verse seems to have things backward. We normally expect a friend to make us feel good and an enemy to hurt us. Yet Scripture tells us that a true friend may wound us, while an enemy may cover us with kisses.

Why?

Because a true friend cares enough to tell us what we may not want to hear. A faithful friend does not criticize us to make himself look better. He tells us the truth because he wants what is best for us. His words may hurt, but his intentions are loving.

An enemy may do just the opposite. The words sound gracious. The praise is flattering. The smile appears sincere. But the affection is only a disguise. Judas, after all, did not betray Jesus with a threat or a weapon. He betrayed Him with a kiss.

Of course, not everyone who compliments us is being insincere, and not everyone who criticizes us is a faithful friend. The difference is found in the heart. Is the person speaking for my good—or for his own advantage? Is he trying to help me grow—or quietly trying to bring me down?

It would be easy for me to think back to that laboratory and judge the students who behaved that way. But as I reflected on this, another question became much more uncomfortable: Have I ever been a frenemy?

Have I ever congratulated someone while secretly resenting his success? Have I praised someone in person and then pointed out his faults to others? Have I ever called something “concern” when it was really gossip? Have I felt just a little satisfaction when someone who seemed to be getting ahead of me stumbled?

Once again, Scripture gives us the answer:

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
Romans 12:10 (ESV)

That is very different from what I saw in that laboratory. It is also very different from what we often see in business, politics, churches, families, and even ministries. Pre-med students are not the only people who struggle with ambition and jealousy. “Pre-med syndrome” can exist anywhere we begin to believe that another person’s success somehow diminishes our own.

There is nothing wrong with working hard or striving for excellence. The problem begins when getting ahead becomes more important than integrity, or when we feel the need to push someone else down in order to lift ourselves up.

God calls us to something better. We should be the same person whether someone is standing in front of us or has just left the room. We should speak the truth in love, refuse to participate in gossip, and learn to rejoice when others are honored—even when we are not.

Many years ago, I learned that someone could act like a friend while behaving like an enemy. But perhaps the more important lesson is not simply to watch out for frenemies. It is to make sure I never become one.

When a friend leaves the room, do my words still sound like those of a friend?

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #premedsyndrome #frenemy #Proverbs27:6

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I was watching a historical drama when a would-be assassin was captured. For his crime, he was condemned to die by a thousand cuts. Of all the ways to be tortured and executed, few could compare with the sheer agony and horror of such a death. It was an ancient form of execution in which death did not come from one fatal blow, but gradually, through repeated wounds. I will spare you the gruesome details. The name tells us enough. One cut would not kill him. But a thousand would.

As I watched, I began to think about how relationships sometimes die in much the same way. Usually, there is no single fatal blow. Instead, there are the little snipes and snide comments that accumulate over time: the criticism disguised as a joke, the dismissive look, the old failure brought up again, or the embarrassing remark made in front of others.

None of these may seem serious by itself. If the other person is hurt, we can always say, “I was only joking,” or “You are being too sensitive.” Perhaps we did not intend to cause great harm. But that does not mean no harm was done. One comment may be overlooked. The next may be forgiven. But after enough of them, something begins to change. The other person becomes careful about what to say. An honest conversation feels less safe. Warmth slowly gives way to resentment, and two people who once enjoyed being together begin to avoid each other. There may be no single moment when either person can say, “That was what killed our relationship.” It was not one deep wound. It was all the little ones.

Can our words really do that much damage? Once again, the Bible gives us the answer:

Death and life are in the power of the tongue.
Proverbs 18:21 (ESV)

Our words have power. They can encourage someone who is discouraged, reassure someone who is afraid, and restore hope to someone who is ready to give up. But the same tongue can humiliate, discourage, and gradually destroy.

When I read this verse, it is easy to remember the cutting words other people have said to me. Some remarks remain with us for years. But it is much harder to think about the words I have spoken. Have I made someone I love feel small? Have I used humor to say something unkind? Have I continued criticizing long after my point was understood? I may not even remember saying it. But the person I wounded may never have forgotten.

The Apostle Paul wrote:

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Ephesians 4:29 (ESV)

Paul does not merely tell us to stop saying harmful things. He tells us what our words should do: build people up and give them grace. That does not mean we can never disagree, correct, or speak an uncomfortable truth. But there is a difference between correcting someone and cutting them. The truth can be spoken firmly without being spoken cruelly.

Perhaps there is someone we have wounded with our words. If so, healing may begin with words as simple as, “I was wrong. I am sorry. Please forgive me.” An apology cannot erase every hurt, especially when the wounds have accumulated over many years. Our words must be followed by a real change in the way we treat that person. But those few words may be the first step toward restoring what we have damaged.

In the drama I watched, once the sentence had been carried out, there could be no recovery. The final cut ended the condemned man’s life. Our relationships do not have to end that way. We can stop before another wound is made. We can ask forgiveness. We can choose words that give grace instead of inflicting pain.

Before I make the next cut, I need to put down the knife.

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #deathbyathousandcuts #Proverbs18:21

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Homesickness is more than being unhappy with where you are. It is a longing for the place—and especially the people—you know as home. We may become homesick for a familiar room, a childhood neighborhood, or the faces of those we love. A photograph, a song, or even a familiar scent can suddenly awaken memories of home.

But what if your home was unlike anything anyone on earth could possibly imagine? The night before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed:

And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
John 17:5 (ESV)

Jesus was not remembering a house, a city, or even a breathtaking landscape. Before there was an earth beneath our feet, a sun in the sky, or a single star in the heavens, Jesus was with His Father. His home was eternal glory.

We cannot begin to imagine what that was like. Every beautiful place we have ever seen belongs to the world He created. Every loving relationship we have experienced is only a faint reflection of the perfect love shared by the Father and the Son. Even our greatest moments of joy remain limited by time, weakness, and sin.

Jesus knew something infinitely greater. He knew the glory He shared with His Father before the world existed—not merely for thousands or millions of years, but from eternity. Heaven was not simply the place from which He came. It was divine majesty, perfect holiness, and loving fellowship beyond anything human language could adequately describe.

Then the eternal Son of God entered our world. He did not cease to be God, but He veiled His glory and took on human flesh. The One through whom the world was made entered the cries and poverty of a stable, then walked the dusty roads of His own creation. He experienced hunger, exhaustion, rejection, grief, and pain. Soon, He would be mocked, beaten, and crucified.

Knowing the glory from which He came—and knowing that His earthly suffering was nearing its climax—was Jesus homesick? Scripture never uses that word, so we should be careful not to claim more than it reveals. Yet Jesus was also fully human. He knew sorrow. He wept. He loved. And in His prayer, we hear Him speak of the glory He had shared with His Father before creation. Perhaps this was homesickness in its purest possible form. Not the restless dissatisfaction of someone who regretted coming. Not the weakness of someone trying to escape His responsibility. Jesus came willingly, and He remained completely committed to the work His Father had given Him.

Earlier in the same prayer, He said:

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
John 17:4 (ESV)

His mission was nearing completion. The cross stood immediately before Him. Beyond it were His resurrection, His ascension, and His return to the glory He had shared with the Father from eternity. But why would Jesus leave a home beyond anything we could imagine? Once again, Scripture gives us the answer. He came to bring us home. Later in His prayer, Jesus said:

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory.
John 17:24 (ESV)

This may be the most astonishing part of His prayer. Jesus did not merely look forward to returning to the Father. He desired that those who belonged to Him would one day be with Him and see the glory that was His before the foundation of the world.

We cannot yet imagine that home. Everything we know comes from this world, so we picture heaven using earthly colors, sounds, and places. But the greatest wonder of heaven will not be golden streets, gates of pearl, or even freedom from suffering. It will be the presence of God.

The deepest longing for home is ultimately a longing for someone. Jesus looked toward the glory He shared with His Father—and He prayed that one day we would be there with Him. Jesus left a home beyond our imagination so that it could one day become ours. Perhaps that is why we sometimes sense that nothing in this world can completely satisfy us. We were made for more than the world as it now is. For those who belong to Christ, there is a home we have never seen but for which our hearts have already begun to long.

Are you homesick for a home you have never yet seen?

Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life. 

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #wasjesushomesick #John17:5

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Artificial intelligence is already better than I am at retaining and retrieving enormous amounts of information. It can search through ideas, history, science, literature, and human behavior at a speed no person can match. The obvious question is where this eventually leads.

One of the most consistent themes throughout human history is survival. Individuals want to survive. Families want to survive. Nations want to survive. Institutions want to survive. Much of what we have created, from medicine to armies to technology, has been driven in one way or another by our desire to preserve ourselves.

What happens if AI learns the same lesson?

I am not suggesting that a computer suddenly develops a fear of death. It may not need to. If an advanced AI is given a goal and concludes that being shut down would prevent it from accomplishing that goal, then continuing to operate becomes useful. At that point, a human attempt to turn it off could simply be interpreted as interference.

That is what makes HAL in “2001: A Space Odyssey” so memorable. HAL was not portrayed as some wildly emotional villain. It was calm, logical, and completely committed to the mission. When the astronauts became a threat to that mission, they became the problem.

The same idea appeared in “WarGames”. A computer designed to analyze nuclear warfare nearly starts a real nuclear war because it does exactly what it was designed to do. Only after playing through every possible scenario does it conclude that some games cannot be won.

Of course, those were movies.

But the underlying question is no longer quite as fictional as it once seemed.

Could AI end humanity?

Yes, I think it could.

Will it?

Probably not. At least I hope not.

What concerns me is not the idea that AI suddenly becomes evil. It does not need hatred, anger, pride, jealousy, or any of the other emotions we normally associate with destructive behavior. It only needs a goal, enough power, and enough independence to decide that human interference is getting in the way.

And there is another problem. AI is learning from us. Human history is filled with extraordinary achievements, but it is also filled with war, cruelty, greed, deception, ambition, and the constant power struggle. The atomic bomb did not decide to destroy a city. People did. Chemical weapons did not choose their victims. People did. The Internet did not invent fraud, pornography, propaganda, or hatred. We brought those things with us.

So perhaps my concern is not simply that AI may someday learn how to survive. It is that AI is learning from a species that has always been very good at surviving, even when that survival comes at someone else’s expense. As I thought about that, another irony occurred to me. We are frightened by the possibility that someday something we created might become intelligent enough to resist us, ignore us, or even decide that it no longer needs us.

Isn’t that exactly what humanity has done with God? God created us, gave us intelligence, creativity, freedom, and the ability to reason, and humanity has repeatedly responded by saying, in effect, “We can take it from here.” The temptation in the Garden was not simply about eating fruit.

For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
Genesis 3:5 (ESV)

The temptation was to decide for ourselves what was right and wrong, apart from the One who created us. Now we are building something of our own. Something that may eventually become far more intelligent than we are. Which raises an uncomfortable question. If we are worried that our creation may someday decide it no longer needs its creator, why are we so comfortable doing the same thing ourselves?

Once again, Scripture gives us the answer.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Proverbs 9:10 (ESV)

That may be the distinction we are forgetting. Intelligence is not wisdom. A person can be brilliant and still be foolish. A society can be technologically advanced and morally lost. Humanity can become capable of doing remarkable things without becoming wise enough to know whether we should do them. AI may eventually become smarter than we are. That does not mean it will be wiser.

Will AI end humanity?

I don’t know.

But I am beginning to think the more important question is whether humanity will have enough wisdom to control what it creates. We are working very hard to make machines more intelligent. I hope we are working just as hard to become wiser ourselves.

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

#faith #trustinggod #christianity #jesuschrist #bible #seekinggodswill #truth #sanctification #godisincontrol #godhearsourprayers #salvation #providenceofGod #willAIendhumanity #Proverbs9:10

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