The illusion of control and the power of grace
If you were to stack one trillion dollar bills together, the column would measure 67,866 miles high, more than a fourth of the way from Earth to the moon. That’s how much of the stock market’s value was wiped out Monday. Nearly $600 billion was lost by just one company, the biggest one-day fall in US history. While the markets largely recovered yesterday, the reverberations are continuing. At the heart of the crisis: Chinese AI model DeepSeek was released last week.
DeepSeek appeared to perform on par with counterparts from OpenAI, the US firm at the heart of the AI boom, but with far less computing power or money invested. This means AI models of the future might not need as many high-end chips from leading producer Nvidia. As the Wall Street Journal reported, this “turned tech and Wall Street upside down,” causing Nvidia’s stock to plunge more than $590 billion and tech stocks across the board to plummet.
In other scary news, the “Doomsday Clock” moved closer to midnight yesterday than ever before. This means atomic scientists think humanity is closer than we have ever been to destroying ourselves, whether through nuclear war, climate change, biological threats, and/or advances in disruptive technologies.
A culture built on the illusion of control is understandably shaken by events beyond our ability to forecast or manage. So much of what we are enticed to buy offers to help us control our appearance, health, finances, relationships, and happiness. The current Burger King ads end accordingly: “Have it your way. You rule!”
But we don’t.
And that’s the good news of the day.
When the world was magical
From Monday’s earthquake off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire, to the private bathhouse discovered recently in Pompeii that was destroyed along with the city by the Vesuvius eruption, to yesterday’s somber anniversary of the Challenger explosion, the news reminds us daily of our finitude.
There was a time when we would not have been shocked.
Humans used to live in a world where most was outside our agency, and we knew it. Devastating storms could not be predicted. Criminals and animals of prey threatened our daily lives. A broken bone could lead to a fatal infection.
So we prayed to God or the gods who could do what we could not, then we tried to live in ways that they would bless and protect. From Christianity’s invitation to “ask, and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7), to Islam’s five pillars, to Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path, to Hindu rituals of purification such as the massive festival happening this week in India, to the worship of the various gods of the Greek and Roman pantheon, human experience was rife with supernaturalism in hopes of protection and prosperity.
In a way, this is magical thinking: Whatever the religion, the practitioner asks their deity to do what they are unable to do. We can neither understand nor duplicate their work on our behalf. But their miraculous “magic” was vital to our flourishing and thus became part of the fabric of our lives.
That was then—this is now.
Praying to our cell phones
Darwin debunked the “myth” of divine creation for millions; Marx derided religion as an “opiate” used to enslave the masses; Freud explained our faith in God as “wish fulfillment”; postmodern thinkers convinced us that all truth (including that of the Bible) is personal and subjective; the sexual revolution “liberated” us from the constraints of outdated biblical morality.
As a consequence, the triumph of secularism and decline of religion are now established facts in the minds of millions in our culture.
In a way, the science of our day is magic for most of us. When we ask our cell phones to make calls, give directions, or answer questions, the slab of glass in our hand responds in ways that previous generations would have considered magical if not miraculous. It’s almost as if we were praying to our devices and they were answering as gods. It is the same with airplanes, cars, and much of the technology we experience every day.
Along the way, we persuade ourselves that since these are our possessions, we possess the “magic” they produce, making us masters of the universe we inhabit. But in fact, we are not.
In truth, “You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). What is the solution? “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (v. 15).
Why should we make this wise choice each day?
The baptism of Lola Sheen
Humanity is a tale of two gardens.
- In the garden of Eden, our first parents sought to “be like God” (Genesis 3:5).
- In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “Not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).
Now we must choose which example to follow. If we understand that the God who “is” love can only want our best (1 John 4:8; Romans 12:2), we no longer need to ask for anything other than that his will be done. As missionary Jim Elliot said,
“God always gives his best to those who leave the choice with him.”
Let’s close with an example.
Lola Sheen is the daughter of actors Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards. The nineteen-year-old recently shared a video of her January 3 baptism, then explained the reasons behind her decision:
When I was in my deepest depression, there was a moment where I realized I hit rock bottom. I felt so lost and hopeless, and was just doing my best to make it to the next day. I just accepted my life was going to be like that forever and thought I would genuinely never laugh again. Until I met not only my Savior but my best friend, Jesus.
I can’t really explain it other than it was supernatural, but Jesus met me exactly where I was, and he forever became my sun. I began to trust Jesus with my life, when he chose me when no one else did and loved me when I didn’t feel worthy of love. He gave me a light when I couldn’t find my own and rescued me from the darkness. . . .
Jesus is the only reason why I’m here today and made my life worth living. I chose to get baptized at the beginning of this year because I made it through this year only by the strength of Jesus, and I am so happy to go into this next year after publicly declaring Jesus as my Savior. I am forever saved by his grace, through faith.
Lola testified, “I began to trust Jesus with my life,” and that made all the difference.
It always does.
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Quote for the day:
“There is no failure in God’s will, and no future outside of God’s will.” —George W. Truett
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