Be Nice to ChatGPT

I think that it matters how we talk to AI.

In 1997 there was a Friends episode that featured Ben Stiller playing Rachel’s new boyfriend, Tommy. From the first time he is introduced, Tommy is a big hit with everyone in the group; everyone except for Ross. While the other five find Tommy to be hilarious, outgoing and extremely kind, Ross has a couple of private interactions with Tommy that make him think otherwise.

In the first situation the gang of friends plus Tommy head to the theatre. Before the show starts everyone but Ross and Tommy go to the bathrooms. While they are all occupied Ross watches Tommy berate an elderly couple for sitting in the wrong seats, calling them idiots and morons and chasing them out of the aisle. As the watching audience, we get our first glimpse, along with Ross, of what Tommy is really like.

In the next situation Ross and Tommy are outside of the coffee shop, while the other five are inside enjoying themselves. Ross turns around quickly with a hot cup of coffee, almost spilling it on Tommy’s shirt, which leads Tommy to another angry outburst. He yells at Ross, “You idiot! You gonna spill hot coffee all over me, huh?!”

Whats So Funny

The hilarious part of the episode is not jut watching Ben Stiller losing his cool and Ross awkwardly observing it; it is also watching Ross try to tell the other five what Tommy is really like and no one believing him. They all just chalk Ross’ dislike of Tommy up to jealously. That is, until the end when they all walk in on Tommy shouting at Joey and Chandler’s beloved duck. Finally, everyone sees behind the curtain and they see Tommy for what he really is: a hot-tempered lunatic.

Its funny how everyone who watches that episode makes the same conclusion. No one thinks that Tommy is really a nice guy, and the yelling is just a facade. Instead, we all conclude that Tommy is a really mean guy, and the kindness is the facade. We all understand the same thing, that who you are in private is who you really are, because its the private moments that most powerfully reveal your heart.

The true character of your heart comes out when you don’t think anyone is looking, when there is no one around to impress. And the heart is all that matters, because everything flows from that, whether good or bad. As Jesus says in Luke 6.45, "The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."

The question that we should be asking ourselves often then is what kind of things are flowing from our hearts? Or to say it another way, what are we like in private? Are we a bunch of ‘Tommys’?

AI Bullies

The more and more I use ChatGPT, the more and more I realize how “Tommy-like” I am when I speak to ChatGPT. It’s not a real person so I don’t talk to it like I would talk to a real person. I talk to it knowing no one else is watching, at that ChatGPT isn’t telling. When it fails to give me the information I want, I tend to get angry with it and giving it a taste of my anger. At times I become of a bit of a bully to ChatGPT.

You might say that there is no problem with calling a computer program a moron. It is just like calling a soccer ball a moron. An inanimate object. No harm, no foul. But I don’t think that’s true. Whether it’s a soccer ball or ChatGPT, those interactions are revealing something that exists in my heart. They are revealing, even just to a small degree, what I am like in private, and therefore what kind of treasure is living deep down in me.

I don’t want to be a Tommy. I want don’t want to have a façade. I want my life in public to flow out of a genuinely transformed heart. I want the fruit of the Spirit to cascade out of my private life into all of my public interactions. But in order for that to happen, I believe that I need to be intentional about allowing God to cultivate my heart in the times when no ones looking. That means it matters what I do in private, how I act in private, and how I speak in private.

So, it even matters how I talk to GPT when no ones looking.

What Fly-Fishing Unhooks Me From

I fish on a weekly a basis, sometimes on a daily basis. I fly-fish to be specific. If you don’t know what fly-fishing is, just think “A River Runs Through It” with Robert Redford. And if you haven’t seen “A River Runs Through It” with Robert Redford, than please do me a favour and go watch that marvellous movie.

I love fly-fishing so much. I love everything about it. Being in/on a river, being away from buildings and traffic, hearing only the noise of water rushing past the boulders, and the beautiful sight of that fly dancing in the air above me and then coming to gently lay down on the water’s surface.

Truth be told though, according to my fish-record, I am a terrible fly-fisherman (don’t tell my four-year-old son). I have the patience for fly-fishing as well the love for it. After many years of casting, I have acquired the skill for it too. But I rarely land a fish on the shore, and I mean rarely.

Getting unhooked

You know what my problem is? I just don’t care enough about the fish. If I really cared about catching them, I would spend more time thinking about the layout of the river. I would start checking the insides of the few fish that I do catch to see what the other fish are eating. I would widen my catalogue of flies to choose from, and I would put far more care into my presentation of the fly to the fish. But I just don’t care.

At the end of the day, I don’t go fly-fishing for the fish. I never have. Even though it is an incomparable rush when I finally get one hooked. No, I go fly fishing because of what fly-fishing unhooks me from.

It is impossible for me to fly-fish and hold my phone, and that is the beauty of it for me. The modern world seems to be making it harder and harder for a person to find solitude; to find space to be alone with the Lord in prayer. What fly-fishing offers me is a glorious landscape, and an activity that keeps my mind free and my hands busy.

When my fly rod is in hand, my phone is not. Most often it is nowhere near me, because there is no use for it on the river and no room for it in my hands. Fly-fishing forces my phone out of the picture, and it creates space for me to talk to my heavenly Father without any noise or distraction except for the rare and sudden splash of a rainbow leaping out of the water with my hook in its mouth.

Its Never Been About the Fish

I am a terrible fly-fisherman and I always will be. I know I will never win a trophy for fly-fishing, but I also know that I will never stop doing it, because frankly it’s never been about the fish for me. It’s always been about Jesus.

As Wendell Berry once wrote, “He [God] goes fishing every day in the Kentucky River. I see Him often.”

So, what is your fly-fishing?

Thinking About Bruce Willis and Jesus

Yesterday, the algorithm got the best of me.

Every time I opened up my phone’s web browser, the same article was sitting there staring back. I say ‘article’ loosely, because it wasn’t much of an article. It was a collection of pictures of celebrities and their families celebrating American thanksgiving. From morning to night, it kept showing up, until finally as the evening approached and all my self-control over ad clicking had been spent, I clicked.

For the next few minutes, I clicked my way through thirty-four pictures of celebrities posing with turkeys. You don’t have to remind me of what a complete waste of time this was. I will the wear the disappointment in myself over that initial click for the rest of the weekend. That being said, there was one picture that caught my attention and gave me a lot to think about. It was the one with Bruce Willis and his family, sitting on a couch in their casual thanksgiving clothes.

John Mclane

I don’t know if you have kept up with Bruce Willis’ life over the past while, but it has changed a lot since the Die Hard days. Willis was diagnosed in 2023 with frontotemporal dementia. As a result, he has faced rapid cognitive decline, to the point that he is no longer even capable of speaking.

To see John McClane (Die Hard reference in case you missed it) sitting and smiling with his family was a beautiful thing. It was the most beautiful picture in the set of thirty-four. At the same time, it was to me a staunch reminder of how fast our abilities can disappear.

We often talk as Christians about the suddenness of death. We talk to unbelievers about how important it is to not put off a decision for Jesus until later, because what if death comes calling when you don’t expect it. I wonder though have often we talk about or think about for ourselves, the suddenness of debilitation or disablement; how fast we can go from a fully functioning person, to our arms not working, our legs not working, our kidneys not working or even our mind not working.

In the same way that unbelievers can put off following Jesus, thinking that they have lots of time to make the decision, believers can put off radically following Jesus, believing that they also have lots of time to make that kind of commitment. Think about this for a second, because maybe it is you. You are a Christian and yet each day you justify why you’re not going to start really committing to Jesus until next week, or until after the new year. When that time comes, then you will pick up a serious bible reading plan; then you will shut off the TV and spend more time in prayer; then you will start putting resources to global missions; then you will make these changes to put Jesus first and finish your life with a legacy of seeking first His kingdom.

All I have is today

Listen, I am not preaching to you, I am preaching to myself, because I do this. I have an idea of how surrendered and devoted to Christ I want to be, and there is always a valid reason for it starting tomorrow. But as a I stared yesterday at Bruce Willis and his family, I could not help but think that maybe tomorrow won’t come, or at least not come in the same way that today came. I might not die tomorrow, but I might lose the ability to follow Jesus as radically as I am able to right now.

Limitations can arrive and will arrive just as fast as death. All we can really know is that we have whatever ability we have in this moment. So then why not capitalize on this moment, to seek first the Kingdom of God with everything we have, before we have less of an ability to do so? Jesus deserves that much and more; He deserves our prime years as well as everything that follows.

S0…

Today, I woke up with the full function of my mind and body. Tomorrow might be different. So, let me use all the ability that He has given me today for His glory, before I no longer have it. Let me take the risks today, because I have today, and because He is worthy of my complete devotion now and not just in the future.

I hope I don’t click on another set of celebrity photos, but I am thankful for the reminder that came through yesterday’s lack of self-control.

Whats the Point in Praying?

Sometimes I wonder about the power of prayer, and then I read Acts 12.

Herod has just killed James, the brother of John. Noticing how pleased the Jews seem with his actions, he goes ahead and arrests Peter in preparation for killing him too. Because its Passover, Herod thinks it will be better to wait until after the weekend to carry out his plan, and so he locks Peter up for the time being.

What comes next in Acts 12 is almost hyperbolic. Peter is put in prison, he is delivered over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, he sleeps between two of the soldiers, he is bound with chains, and sentries guard the prison door. The amount of precautions Herod takes to prevent Peter’s escape or attack seems like something out of a cartoon. Its just feels so over the top. Nevertheless, you know as the reader that there is no way anyone is getting in to grab Peter and there is no way that Peter is getting out.

The Great Escape

But then it begins. An angel of the Lord shows up and a light shines into the cell. The angel strikes Peter on the side and tells him to get up. Peter gets up from between the two soldiers without waking them and the chains around his hands miraculously fall to the ground. He quietly gets dressed, gets some sandals on, and starts following the angel out of the cell. They sneak past the first guard successfully, and then they sneak past the second. Finally, they arrive at the iron gate leading into the city, and to quote Luke, the gate opens for them “of its own accord” (Acts 12.10). And with that, like a scene out of Shawshank Redemption, Peter is free! He heads to Mary’s house and the story continues on from there.

What an incredible scene! All those barriers to keep Peter securely inside of his cell, and somehow, with the help of an angel, he overcomes all of them. Of course, the ‘somehow’ is not really a ‘somehow.’ God is how. If you made it this far in the book of Acts, you know that God has been doing miracle after miracle in and through this early church. It is not all that surprising that now He springs Peter from prison. And yet, there is something else at work in this scene, that can easily go unnoticed.

The Praying Church

Back it up to verse 5. Luke is telling the reader about all about Peter’s arrest, and he includes this little, but substantial detail, “But earnest prayer for him was made to God by the Church” (Acts 12.5).

Now, why include a detail about prayer in a story about God’s wonder working, prison escaping power? Well, maybe because the two are connected. Maybe because this story is about something more than simply a display of God’s power. Maybe it is a story about the power of a praying church and God powerfully acting in response to those prayers.

I say maybe, but I don’t mean maybe. This is a story about the power of prayer. Peter is imprisoned, chained, guarded, and then the Church prays, and all of the walls between him and the outside world fall down. That is the order of events. Would Peter have been released if the church wasn’t praying? Who knows. All we know is that that were praying and God did something miraculous in response to their prayers. And what else does the church need to know then that?

The Power of Earnest Prayer

The reality put forth by Acts 12 is that when the church prays and prays earnestly, she can be confident that God both hears those prayers and will answer those prayers. Of course sometimes He may answer in ways we were not necessarily wanting, but other times He may answer in ways far beyond what we were expecting.

Remember Church, you are praying to an all-powerful God. So don’t underestimate the power of earnest prayer.

How Do We Rekindle a Passion for the Word?

A couple of nights ago I got this text message from a friend: “How do we rekindle a passion for the Word?”

I was so excited to get this question for two reasons: 1) Because the question reveals the desire. Assuming he was asking for himself (and he was), the question means that my friend is desiring to rekindle a passion for God’s Word, and what could be better news to receive than that? And then 2) Because this is at least one question that I think I have an answer for.

The Trick to Relationships

I have been married long enough to know now that there is only one thing that makes me fall in love with my wife over and over again. If ever I find my affections for her beginning to grow stale, I just return to this one thing and it works like magic. You know what it is? Time! Focused, intentional, uninterrupted time.

As soon as I start giving my wife my undivided attention (and not to my phone), all the reasons that I married her and more begin rushing back, and I find myself falling head over heals once all over again.

Now, I don’t think its just something that works for me and my wife or even just for husbands and wives. I think that time is the answer for rekindling all relationships, parent and child, friend to friend, siblings, spouses, you name it. There might be more to the health of these relationships sometimes, but not less. Time is the irreplaceable component.

And it is no different when it comes to us and God, because that is after all, another relationship. Just read a couple verses that say as much.

John 15:15 "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you."

Galatians 4:6-7 "And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!' So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God."

Revelation 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me."

Its another relationship. By way of faith in the finished work of Christ, the God of the universe has invited us into relationship with Himself. And and the key to that relationship growing and thriving, just like every other relationship, is time. There is no other way to make that relationship grow. There are no short cuts.

What About the Bible?

At this point you may say, “You have not answered the question that your friend asked. He asked you how to rekindle a relationship with God’s Word, not a relationship with God.” That is true, but the two are not disconnected. If spending time with God is about getting to know God, well what is the primary way that we get to know Him? Just listen to Jesus’ words to the Pharisees, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5.39-40). It is the Scriptures lead us to Christ! Add to that the words of Psalm 19, that the Word of God actually revives our souls, puts joy in our hearts, and enlightens our eyes (Ps 19.7-9).

According to the Scriptures, it is the Scriptures, by the power of God’s Spirit, that brings us to engage with God Himself. And if that is the case, then time spent in the Scriptures will excite us for the Scriptures because of how they serve to stir our affections for God! It might not be easy, but it is also not that complicated. To rekindle a love for God we must rekindle a love for His Word, and to rekindle a love for His Word we must spend our time in His Word.

So listen, is your relationship with God struggling? Is your passion for His Word lacking? Build a home in the Scriptures and live there. Be much alone with God through His Word, and then watch your love for God and His Word explode.