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In our February newsletter, I explored the reality that being an artist in the Kingdom means being an artist who is walking a different walk. That coming into the Kingdom of God is not just coming into a belief system. It is coming into a new way of life (2 Cor. 5:17) under a new system and government (Colossians 1:13) with different rules. And it has changed us, and is to change the way we live our lives, including our art lives and the ways we go about being artists. (Listen to the talk to dig into this more).​

And the beautiful thing about that is that we always have a choice and an alternative to what is going on around us. This is another aspect of what it means to be a Kingdom artist: you are not beholden to or limited by the things happening outside the Kingdom you belong to if your trust is in the Lord.

I’ve been paying close attention to the AI conversation as it is unfolding. Particularly, I’m interested in the social, environmental, and commercial issues and interests confronting one another as this technology is being engineered into a society whose people didn’t really ask for it and don’t really know what to do with it. Though AI has been around for a long time in some form, it is only recently being forced upon people in different ways. It is now just here, and everywhere.

I use AI. I have no issues with the technology itself. But I am disheartened with its deployment colored by commercial interests (and its theft of intellectual property). And there are things I find worrisome in the way it is used. I find it interesting how its creators talk about this technology as if it is inevitable, and as if everything that comes with it is inevitable. As if there is no option to make a different choice or do things a different way. And as a result of AI creators unmitigated persistence, many people feel caught up in these rip currents dragging them to places they didn’t want to go and away from things they didn’t want to leave.

It feels like there is no other choice. It feels like there is no other way. At least that’s what they keep saying. (And of course they would say that it’s inevitable and you need to just accept it and go with it because they need you to buy into their technology to ensure they become profitable.)

But that’s not true naturally.
And it certainly isn’t true spiritually.

AI is here and is something we must now contend with. There’s no avoiding that. And it has changed things. It is changing some things faster than we can handle. And no one really understands how yet. And no one really knows who we will be and what will remain on the other side.

Still, as it stands, AI has only changed things in a diffuse sort of way. It hasn’t changed them in a substantive way. At most, it is forcing us to reconsider how we do things. But not what we do, nor (dare I say) what matters most.

I think that this rip current feeling with AI, and its seeming inescapability, is a wonderful metaphor for how it can feel trying to walk the different path, to do things the Kingdom way.

When you get caught in a rip current, your survival depends on your reaction. If you’re caught in a rip current, the natural reaction is to want to swim directly back to the shore. But that is remaining in the current and fighting directly against it. And that is how you tire yourself out and risk drowning. I’ve read that the better way to react is to relax (if you need to) and swim parallel to the shore. Rip currents are narrow; instead of fighting against them, swim parallel to get out of them and back into calm water.

I would imagine that if you are caught in one, the surprise and panic of its force would make you think the whole ocean is now a rip current. But a rip current is only a narrow, localized, passing disturbance in a vast and steady ocean. It is not the only experience available.

Our societies are full of rip current issues. AI (and what it’s doing to our work, interactions, habits, and even brains) is just one of them. And just like a natural rip current would bring anxiety and panic, so can the social, political, and financial ones. But as a citizen and artist of the Kingdom, that is not the only experience available to you.

Being a citizen of the Kingdom is knowing that 1) that narrow, localized, passing rip current is not the whole ocean; you can get out of it and into calm waters. You can have a different experience.

As a citizen and artist of the Kingdom, you are never without an alternative. You are never without a way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13). You are never without a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). You are never far from rescue, redemption, and restoration (Ps. 91:14-15, Ps. 50:15, Joel 2:25).

This past Sunday, I was so blessed when my Bishop spoke about Isaiah 54:10, where the Lord reveals we have a covenant of peace (shalom) with Him, a covenant that shall not be removed, no matter what else is going on. And my Bishop broke it down, sharing that this unremovable covenant we have with God means that there should be nothing missing that we need, nothing lacking that we are supposed to have, and nothing broken that will not be put back together—so that we can do what we need to do and be who we need to be.

And 2) being a citizen and artist of the Kingdom is knowing how to get out of the rip currents when others do not. When others are stuck fighting that rip current on their own the best they know how, it is having the Holy Spirit in the current with you: leading and guiding you out and back into the steady water that is vast and full of possibility. Full of the provision, and mercy, and goodness, and grace of your God.

Jeremiah 17:5-8 (Amplified)
5 Thus says the Lord,
“Cursed is the man who trusts in and relies on mankind,
Making [weak, faulty human] flesh his strength,
And whose mind and heart turn away from the Lord.
6 “For he will be like a shrub in the [parched] desert;
And shall not see prosperity when it comes,
But shall live in the rocky places of the wilderness,
In an uninhabited salt land.
7 “Blessed [with spiritual security] is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord
And whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord.
8 “For he will be [nourished] like a tree planted by the waters,
That spreads out its roots by the river;
And will not fear the heat when it comes;
But its leaves will be green and moist.
And it will not be anxious and concerned in a year of drought
Nor stop bearing fruit.

So as you look at and move around in all that’s going on, you have a decision to make. Is God’s provision, ability, and goodness contingent on what’s going on in the world? Has His arm shortened? Are His promises, or His ability to deliver and fulfill them, now diminished or undermined by the things going on? Has His ability to redeem, restore, provide, etc. been compromised or weakened by what’s going on? Or does He still have the power to bring you all the way into the vision and promise He gave you? Is He smart enough? Powerful enough? Strategic and innovative enough to guide you intelligently around the speedbumps and wreckage happening in society? Is He still able to make room for the gifts He gave you and work all things together for your good? And if He is, what does that mean for your life and vision in art? That’s what you have to decide. And then move accordingly.
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Until next time!
Marlita