Keep Your Eyes On Jesus

“Two boys were playing in the snow one day, when one said to the other, “Let’s see who can make the straightest path in the snow.” His companion readily accepted the proposition, and they started. One boy fixed his eyes on a tree, and walked along without taking his eyes off the object selected. The other boy set his eyes on the tree also, and, when he had gone a short distance, he turned, and looked back to see how true his course was. He went a little distance farther, and again turned to look over his steps. When they arrived at their stopping place, each halted and looked back. One path was true as an arrow, while the other ran in a zigzag course. “How did you get your path so true?” asked the boy who had made the crooked steps. “Why,” said the other boy, “I just set my eyes on the tree, and kept them there until I got to the end; while you stopped and looked back and wandered out of your course.””*

This was a lesson I learned as a youngster as I was being taught to plant and cultivate straight rows of corn. I was told to keep looking forward, concentrating on guiding the tractor where it was supposed to go. If you did so, the planter or cultivator you were pulling had to follow correctly. But the temptation was to look back to see how you were doing. Nearly always, when I did so, the tractor would wander off course and the implement would follow, damaging crops in the process.

Focusing on Jesus is vital to our spiritual lives. That’s why Paul talked about “...forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead” (Philippians 3:13). The Hebrew writer encourages us to be “...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith…” (Hebrews 12:2). Our world is full of distractions that can lure us away from what is truly important. Keep your eyes on Jesus!

God loves you!

Mike

*Heartwarming Bible Illustrations, Richard Steele; quoted by ministry127.com

Artificially Real

Add this to the list of signs that the digital apocalypse may be imminent. The following is from a recent article on futurism.com titled “New Browser Plugin Adds Typos to Your AI-Generated Emails to Make Them Look Real.”

“The advent of large language model-based writing tools have given lazy or unconfident writers incredible new shortcuts that can spit out everything from glossy work emails to crispy school papers. The problem, of course, is that bosses and teachers around the world quickly got wise to the phenomenon — and as a result, any text that feels too tidy and polished has started to arouse suspicion.

“Now, in an effort to reintroduce some of the messiness of human writing — and hide our AI addiction — venture capitalist Ben Horwitz used Anthropic’s Claude AI to vibe code a browser plugin that does something that would have seemed preposterous just a few years ago: intentionally adding typos to emails. “I made the anti-Grammarly,” he bragged, referring to a popular, AI-powered spelling and grammar checker. “Mess up your emails with AI.”

Artificial intelligence can be a very powerful and useful tool. But the rise of A.I. has also highlighted some potential dangers. One such danger is that it can blur the line between what is artificial or fake and what is real. For example, pictures can be digitally created that appear to be the real thing. Voices and images can be altered to make it appear that someone said or did something they didn’t really say or do. And when people get to the point where they can’t tell the difference between what is fake or real, they tend to gravitate toward extremes. They either begin to believe everything or believe nothing. Do you know anyone like that?

The enemy loves to blur the line between what is fake and what is real. The Bible tells us that “...even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:4). Does that mean A.I. is demonic? No. But, like everything else, the devil will try to use it to his advantage if he can.

God loves you!

Mike

Be Kind To One Another

“Geraldine Brooks won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel March. Her love for books was nurtured by a woman named Althea Glasby, a friend of her grandfather’s. One day Geraldine’s grandfather mentioned to Miss Glasby that his little granddaughter loved to read. From that day forward a parcel arrived for Geraldine every birthday and every Christmas. Each parcel contained an expensively bound, lavishly illustrated edition of a book carefully selected for Geraldine. Inscribed in the front cover of each, in flowing script, were these words, “To Geraldine, with love from Althea Glasby”.

“Geraldine Brooks never met Althea Glasby. She has no idea what inspired this woman to start sending her the books. But this is what she had to say, “I have no idea why this woman spent so much time and thought on a child she didn’t know… Whatever the reason, I wish I could thank her in person. I wish I could tell her how those books shored up a love for the written word that grew over time into a career and a calling. I would like to give her one of the books I’ve written, nice, hardback first edition. The signature wouldn’t be as fine and fluid as hers, but in my own pedestrian scrawl I would say thank you, for the gifts that helped to lead me to a life in books.””*

How can we make a difference in a world full of anger, hate, and division? We might not be able to change the whole world but, like Althea Glasby, we might make a difference one life at a time. Is there a Geraldine Brooks in our own spheres of influence whose life could be changed by acts of kindness? It doesn’t have to be a grand, glorious, or expensive effort to be effective. It might be a kind word spoken in a difficult time. It could be a kindness show when it is least expected. “Be kind to one another…” (Ephesians 4:32).

God loves you!

Mike

*Source: story details in McCrindle, The Power of Good, Hybrid Publishers 2011