How Not to Praise the Devil: The April Newsletter

Also: Stories of encounters with Jesus, AI resources, and Rushmere

Hello friends, it’s April. I hope this email finds you well.

I’m recovering from the AI flu. You know the one: You see the most recent shenanigans—Bill Gates, for example, averring that in ten years humans won’t be needed for most things; you contemplate the powers and principalities driving this quest for omnipotence and immortality; you think, Sheesh, must we?

Evidently we must.

Still, Jack Gilbert was right: “To make injustice the only measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.”

We have other things to consider. For example, Paul Kingsnorth shared this note from an Australian Substacker named Abigail Austin:

I've been going to church for a year.

I'll be baptised in a month.

I go to a marriage course with my husband every month created by the church.

If someone had told me this ten years ago I would not have believed them for a second.

15 years ago, I had Ricky Gervais without a shirt and "Atheist" hastily painted on his chest, and a knife in his mouth as my profile picture.

I know.

When we were setting up the food at a church event the other day, just before we would walk through the bright blue evening sky to the empty church filled with timeless images, incense and peace, my husband said, "Isn't it weird how people think this is weird?"

It's true. I used to think this stuff was so weird.

But l've never felt more open-minded, more understanding, more alive...more full of possibility.

Life is not what I thought it was.

Thank God.

That’s the big stuff, ladies and gents. A move of God means grace to individuals. It means families redeemed and the lonely met and the despairing infused, as is by transfusion, with electric hope.

I see stories like this all the time and I want more.

There are people we pray for every day, and when I see them, I wonder if it’s time. Maybe today they’ll crack, and see Him, and burst like popcorn kernels of joy. I hope they do.

Here are some of my favorite things from digital places.

1. Thanks to my monk-in-residence I’ve been enjoying Dr. Noreen Herzfeld’s work on AI; Dr. Herzfeld been at it since the 80’s. She’s calm and she has real invitations. My next favorite show on AI is this one with Andy Crouch. Crouch is a voice for our time and he’s been putting out wonderful stuff. The Tech-Wise Family is great.

2. If you didn’t notice, paid subscribers now have access to my experimental conversations podcast. Last Friday, I published my chat with Tim Willard on AI, gravitational time dilation, and loving life. It’s good. If you’d consider upgrading your subscription, I’d be grateful.

3. Apropos of moving towards people as a way to resist de-incarnation (listen to Andy Crouch), here’s another good one: have you read Justin Whitmel Early’s Made for People? Great stuff. Early’s lived with covenantal friends for decades and so he’s got advice from the trenches. Check it out.

4. I’ve been enjoying the Gray Havens. Listen to “This My Soul.” You’re welcome.

That’s all for now. Warm regards from CO.

Blaine

PS Has anybody been listening to Mumford’s new album? Apart from “Malibu,” “Anchor,” and “Surrender,” I can’t tell if I like it. Back in 2018, Delta was a revelation. Maybe you can mail it in after an album like that? Rushmere feels like a return to form, but also like some of these songs could have used another hour in the oven. Feel free to tell me I’m wrong.