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<\/h3>\nPart II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\nThere was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a nicer grill.<\/p>\n
You\u2019d notice it.
You\u2019d pretend not to care.
And then, three weeks later, you\u2019d somehow own a slightly better grill like it was your civic duty.<\/p>\n
That was manageable.<\/p>\n
Now?<\/p>\n
Your neighbor has an AI running his calendar, making decisions, optimizing his day before he\u2019s even brushed his teeth. He\u2019s got income streams doing CrossFit while he sleeps. His watch tells him how well he rested, how stressed he is, and\u2014if we\u2019re being honest\u2014probably judges him more honestly than his own pastor.<\/p>\n
And somehow\u2026 he seems more at peace than you.<\/p>\n
Which just feels down right rude.<\/p>\n
\nWelcome to the New Comparison Game<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nWe\u2019re not comparing stuff anymore.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re comparing capacity.<\/p>\n
Not what you own, but what you can keep up with. Not how you\u2019re doing, but how efficiently you\u2019re doing it. Not whether you\u2019re present, but whether you\u2019re progressing.<\/p>\n
Your neighbor isn\u2019t just winning (Charlie Sheen voice).<\/p>\n
His tools are.<\/p>\n
And that creates a kind of pressure that\u2019s hard to name but impossible to ignore. It hums under everything. It shows up in small moments. You\u2019re sitting there, minding your own business, and suddenly the thought slips in:<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I don\u2019t keep up\u2026 am I falling behind?\u201d<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t even know what \u201cbehind\u201d means anymore. But you feel it in your weary fucken bones!<\/p>\n
\nThe Fear Beneath It All<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nLet\u2019s not pretend this is neutral.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t just about innovation or convenience. This is about fear.<\/p>\n
The fear of being replaced.
The fear of becoming irrelevant.
The fear that if you\u2019re not constantly improving, you\u2019re quietly disappearing.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve turned life into something that needs to be continuously upgraded. Like you\u2019re an app that needs constant updates or you\u2019ll glitch out and lose value. For me, it\u2019s like do I have to post every accomplishment my kids are doing right in sports to keep them relevant? NO!<\/p>\n
And the exhausting part is that there\u2019s no finish line.<\/p>\n
There is no moment where you arrive and say, \u201cI\u2019m good. I can stop now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because the system isn\u2019t built for arrival.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s built for acceleration.<\/p>\n
\nJesus Did Not Optimize His Life<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nAnd then there\u2019s Jesus.<\/p>\n
Who, if we\u2019re honest, would not do well in today\u2019s productivity culture.<\/p>\n
He spent thirty years doing\u2026 nothing impressive.<\/p>\n
No platform. No audience. No personal brand strategy. No carefully curated life plan. No side hustle that turned into a podcast about finding your divine calling in twelve easy steps.<\/p>\n
Thirty years of ordinary life.<\/p>\n
Working. Eating. showing up. Being present in a place that would never trend.<\/p>\n
Today, we\u2019d call that wasted time.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d say he wasn\u2019t maximizing his potential.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d encourage him to \u201cstart sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThen He Started Walking<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nAnd when he finally did step into public life, he didn\u2019t scale it.<\/p>\n
He walked.<\/p>\n
Everywhere.<\/p>\n
Slow enough to be interrupted. Slow enough to notice people. Slow enough to actually see what was in front of him.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s almost offensive how inefficient it is.<\/p>\n
No shortcuts. No optimization. No attempt to speed up the process.<\/p>\n
Just presence, one step at a time.<\/p>\n
\nInterruptions Were Never the Problem<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nWhat\u2019s fascinating is that Jesus didn\u2019t treat interruptions like obstacles.<\/p>\n
He treated them like the point.<\/p>\n
Someone reaches out in desperation and touches his robe. He stops.<\/p>\n
A man cries out from the side of the road. He stops.<\/p>\n
Children interrupt what feels like an important moment. He welcomes them.<\/p>\n
If that was your day, you\u2019d feel behind. You\u2019d feel like everything was getting derailed. You\u2019d feel like you weren\u2019t getting anything done.<\/p>\n
Jesus calls it the Kingdom.<\/p>\n
Because what we label as inconvenience, he recognizes as invitation.<\/p>\n
What we try to manage, he enters into.<\/p>\n
\nThe Tension We Don\u2019t Want to Admit<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nHere\u2019s where it hits.<\/p>\n
We want the peace of Christ.<\/p>\n
We just don\u2019t want to slow down to get it.<\/p>\n
We want a calm mind, but we don\u2019t want to change our pace. We want presence, but we want it to fit inside a life that\u2019s already moving too fast. We want depth, but without losing momentum.<\/p>\n
That combination doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n
The peace Jesus embodies isn\u2019t layered on top of a chaotic life.<\/p>\n
It comes from a reordered one.<\/p>\n
\nYou Can\u2019t Keep Up and Stay Present<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nAt some point, this becomes a choice.<\/p>\n
You can keep up with everything, or you can be present to something.<\/p>\n
But you cannot do both.<\/p>\n
Attention doesn\u2019t work that way. It\u2019s not infinite. Every time you give it to the next thing, you take it away from what\u2019s right in front of you.<\/p>\n
And what\u2019s right in front of you is where your life actually is.<\/p>\n
Not in the next update. Not in the next breakthrough. Not in whatever everyone else is doing.<\/p>\n
Right here.<\/p>\n
Which sounds simple until you try to live it.<\/p>\n
\nPresence Feels Like Losing<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nLet\u2019s be honest about something.<\/p>\n
Choosing presence doesn\u2019t feel like winning.<\/p>\n
It feels like falling behind.<\/p>\n
It feels like you\u2019re missing something important. Like everyone else is moving forward while you\u2019re standing still. Like you\u2019re opting out of a race that everyone else seems committed to winning.<\/p>\n
Your ego doesn\u2019t like that.<\/p>\n
It wants progress. It wants proof. It wants to know that you\u2019re moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n
Jesus rarely offered that kind of reassurance.<\/p>\n
\nMaybe It\u2019s the Wrong Race<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nWhat if the problem isn\u2019t that you\u2019re behind?<\/p>\n
What if the problem is that you\u2019re measuring your life by a system that was never designed to measure what actually matters?<\/p>\n
Because the Kingdom of God doesn\u2019t run on speed.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t reward efficiency.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t care how optimized your life looks from the outside.<\/p>\n
It cares about whether you are present, whether you are awake, whether you are actually living the life in front of you.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a completely different game.<\/p>\n
And most of us are still trying to win the old one.<\/p>\n
\nYou\u2019re Not a Machine<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nAnd this matters more than we think.<\/p>\n
You get tired.<\/p>\n
You lose focus.<\/p>\n
You doubt yourself.<\/p>\n
You need rest, connection, silence, meaning.<\/p>\n
None of that is a flaw.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n
But instead of honoring that, we\u2019ve started treating those things like bugs in the system. Like something to fix, something to eliminate, something to upgrade out of.<\/p>\n
And yet the entire story of Christ moves in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n
God doesn\u2019t become more efficient.<\/p>\n
God becomes human.<\/p>\n
Limited. Present. Interruptible.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not a downgrade.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the revelation.<\/p>\n
\nThe Quiet Rebellion<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nSo what do you do with all this? I do not know (gasp)\u2026<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think you have to throw your phone away or disappear into the woods.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t about rejecting the world.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about refusing to measure yourself by it.<\/p>\n
Refusing to believe that your value is tied to your pace.<\/p>\n
Refusing to let comparison define your worth.<\/p>\n
There is a quiet kind of rebellion in that.<\/p>\n
Not loud. Not dramatic.<\/p>\n
Just a steady refusal to rush past your own life.<\/p>\n
\nYou Don\u2019t Have to Keep Up<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nYou don\u2019t have to keep up with the A.I.-s.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to match the pace.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to prove that you\u2019re still relevant.<\/p>\n
Because the life Jesus invites you into isn\u2019t moving that fast.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s slower.<\/p>\n
Deeper.<\/p>\n
More present than you\u2019re comfortable with.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s exactly why it feels like you\u2019re falling behind when you first step into it.<\/p>\n
But you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re just finally stepping out of a race that was never going to give you what you were looking for in the first place.<\/p>\n
And for the first time in a while\u2026<\/p>\n
you might actually be where you are.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a nicer grill. You\u2019d notice it.You\u2019d pretend not to care.And then, three weeks later, you\u2019d somehow own a slightly better grill like it was your civic duty. That was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4644,"featured_media":2630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Keeping Up with the A.I.-s<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Keeping Up with the A.I.-s\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christianity Cracking Up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-22T15:55:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1475\/2026\/04\/ai_blog_image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jordan Hathcock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jordan Hathcock\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\",\"name\":\"Keeping Up with the A.I.-s\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-22T15:55:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-22T15:55:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#\/schema\/person\/f03e384a56fa0c254e46ce7ce07d0ea5\"},\"description\":\"Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Keeping Up with the A.I.-s\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/\",\"name\":\"Christianity Cracking Up\",\"description\":\"Experiencing genuine spirituality by embracing our sense of humor.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#\/schema\/person\/f03e384a56fa0c254e46ce7ce07d0ea5\",\"name\":\"Jordan Hathcock\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4443570ee41537a7dacd0bff4fba9431?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4443570ee41537a7dacd0bff4fba9431?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jordan Hathcock\"},\"description\":\"Just a dust-creature who loves experiencing the unknown. 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Maybe someday they would like to see their dads wacky ideas in writing.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/author\/jhathcock\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4644"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
You\u2019d pretend not to care.
And then, three weeks later, you\u2019d somehow own a slightly better grill like it was your civic duty.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re not comparing stuff anymore.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re comparing capacity.<\/p>\n
Not what you own, but what you can keep up with. Not how you\u2019re doing, but how efficiently you\u2019re doing it. Not whether you\u2019re present, but whether you\u2019re progressing.<\/p>\n
Your neighbor isn\u2019t just winning (Charlie Sheen voice).<\/p>\n
His tools are.<\/p>\n
And that creates a kind of pressure that\u2019s hard to name but impossible to ignore. It hums under everything. It shows up in small moments. You\u2019re sitting there, minding your own business, and suddenly the thought slips in:<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I don\u2019t keep up\u2026 am I falling behind?\u201d<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t even know what \u201cbehind\u201d means anymore. But you feel it in your weary fucken bones!<\/p>\n
\n
The Fear Beneath It All<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nLet\u2019s not pretend this is neutral.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t just about innovation or convenience. This is about fear.<\/p>\n
The fear of being replaced.
The fear of becoming irrelevant.
The fear that if you\u2019re not constantly improving, you\u2019re quietly disappearing.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve turned life into something that needs to be continuously upgraded. Like you\u2019re an app that needs constant updates or you\u2019ll glitch out and lose value. For me, it\u2019s like do I have to post every accomplishment my kids are doing right in sports to keep them relevant? NO!<\/p>\n
And the exhausting part is that there\u2019s no finish line.<\/p>\n
There is no moment where you arrive and say, \u201cI\u2019m good. I can stop now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because the system isn\u2019t built for arrival.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s built for acceleration.<\/p>\n
\nJesus Did Not Optimize His Life<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nAnd then there\u2019s Jesus.<\/p>\n
Who, if we\u2019re honest, would not do well in today\u2019s productivity culture.<\/p>\n
He spent thirty years doing\u2026 nothing impressive.<\/p>\n
No platform. No audience. No personal brand strategy. No carefully curated life plan. No side hustle that turned into a podcast about finding your divine calling in twelve easy steps.<\/p>\n
Thirty years of ordinary life.<\/p>\n
Working. Eating. showing up. Being present in a place that would never trend.<\/p>\n
Today, we\u2019d call that wasted time.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d say he wasn\u2019t maximizing his potential.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d encourage him to \u201cstart sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThen He Started Walking<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nAnd when he finally did step into public life, he didn\u2019t scale it.<\/p>\n
He walked.<\/p>\n
Everywhere.<\/p>\n
Slow enough to be interrupted. Slow enough to notice people. Slow enough to actually see what was in front of him.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s almost offensive how inefficient it is.<\/p>\n
No shortcuts. No optimization. No attempt to speed up the process.<\/p>\n
Just presence, one step at a time.<\/p>\n
\nInterruptions Were Never the Problem<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nWhat\u2019s fascinating is that Jesus didn\u2019t treat interruptions like obstacles.<\/p>\n
He treated them like the point.<\/p>\n
Someone reaches out in desperation and touches his robe. He stops.<\/p>\n
A man cries out from the side of the road. He stops.<\/p>\n
Children interrupt what feels like an important moment. He welcomes them.<\/p>\n
If that was your day, you\u2019d feel behind. You\u2019d feel like everything was getting derailed. You\u2019d feel like you weren\u2019t getting anything done.<\/p>\n
Jesus calls it the Kingdom.<\/p>\n
Because what we label as inconvenience, he recognizes as invitation.<\/p>\n
What we try to manage, he enters into.<\/p>\n
\nThe Tension We Don\u2019t Want to Admit<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nHere\u2019s where it hits.<\/p>\n
We want the peace of Christ.<\/p>\n
We just don\u2019t want to slow down to get it.<\/p>\n
We want a calm mind, but we don\u2019t want to change our pace. We want presence, but we want it to fit inside a life that\u2019s already moving too fast. We want depth, but without losing momentum.<\/p>\n
That combination doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n
The peace Jesus embodies isn\u2019t layered on top of a chaotic life.<\/p>\n
It comes from a reordered one.<\/p>\n
\nYou Can\u2019t Keep Up and Stay Present<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nAt some point, this becomes a choice.<\/p>\n
You can keep up with everything, or you can be present to something.<\/p>\n
But you cannot do both.<\/p>\n
Attention doesn\u2019t work that way. It\u2019s not infinite. Every time you give it to the next thing, you take it away from what\u2019s right in front of you.<\/p>\n
And what\u2019s right in front of you is where your life actually is.<\/p>\n
Not in the next update. Not in the next breakthrough. Not in whatever everyone else is doing.<\/p>\n
Right here.<\/p>\n
Which sounds simple until you try to live it.<\/p>\n
\nPresence Feels Like Losing<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nLet\u2019s be honest about something.<\/p>\n
Choosing presence doesn\u2019t feel like winning.<\/p>\n
It feels like falling behind.<\/p>\n
It feels like you\u2019re missing something important. Like everyone else is moving forward while you\u2019re standing still. Like you\u2019re opting out of a race that everyone else seems committed to winning.<\/p>\n
Your ego doesn\u2019t like that.<\/p>\n
It wants progress. It wants proof. It wants to know that you\u2019re moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n
Jesus rarely offered that kind of reassurance.<\/p>\n
\nMaybe It\u2019s the Wrong Race<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nWhat if the problem isn\u2019t that you\u2019re behind?<\/p>\n
What if the problem is that you\u2019re measuring your life by a system that was never designed to measure what actually matters?<\/p>\n
Because the Kingdom of God doesn\u2019t run on speed.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t reward efficiency.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t care how optimized your life looks from the outside.<\/p>\n
It cares about whether you are present, whether you are awake, whether you are actually living the life in front of you.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a completely different game.<\/p>\n
And most of us are still trying to win the old one.<\/p>\n
\nYou\u2019re Not a Machine<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nAnd this matters more than we think.<\/p>\n
You get tired.<\/p>\n
You lose focus.<\/p>\n
You doubt yourself.<\/p>\n
You need rest, connection, silence, meaning.<\/p>\n
None of that is a flaw.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n
But instead of honoring that, we\u2019ve started treating those things like bugs in the system. Like something to fix, something to eliminate, something to upgrade out of.<\/p>\n
And yet the entire story of Christ moves in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n
God doesn\u2019t become more efficient.<\/p>\n
God becomes human.<\/p>\n
Limited. Present. Interruptible.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not a downgrade.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the revelation.<\/p>\n
\nThe Quiet Rebellion<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nSo what do you do with all this? I do not know (gasp)\u2026<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think you have to throw your phone away or disappear into the woods.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t about rejecting the world.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about refusing to measure yourself by it.<\/p>\n
Refusing to believe that your value is tied to your pace.<\/p>\n
Refusing to let comparison define your worth.<\/p>\n
There is a quiet kind of rebellion in that.<\/p>\n
Not loud. Not dramatic.<\/p>\n
Just a steady refusal to rush past your own life.<\/p>\n
\nYou Don\u2019t Have to Keep Up<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nYou don\u2019t have to keep up with the A.I.-s.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to match the pace.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to prove that you\u2019re still relevant.<\/p>\n
Because the life Jesus invites you into isn\u2019t moving that fast.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s slower.<\/p>\n
Deeper.<\/p>\n
More present than you\u2019re comfortable with.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s exactly why it feels like you\u2019re falling behind when you first step into it.<\/p>\n
But you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re just finally stepping out of a race that was never going to give you what you were looking for in the first place.<\/p>\n
And for the first time in a while\u2026<\/p>\n
you might actually be where you are.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a nicer grill. You\u2019d notice it.You\u2019d pretend not to care.And then, three weeks later, you\u2019d somehow own a slightly better grill like it was your civic duty. That was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4644,"featured_media":2630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Keeping Up with the A.I.-s<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Keeping Up with the A.I.-s\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christianity Cracking Up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-22T15:55:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1475\/2026\/04\/ai_blog_image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jordan Hathcock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jordan Hathcock\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\",\"name\":\"Keeping Up with the A.I.-s\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-22T15:55:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-22T15:55:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#\/schema\/person\/f03e384a56fa0c254e46ce7ce07d0ea5\"},\"description\":\"Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Keeping Up with the A.I.-s\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/\",\"name\":\"Christianity Cracking Up\",\"description\":\"Experiencing genuine spirituality by embracing our sense of humor.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#\/schema\/person\/f03e384a56fa0c254e46ce7ce07d0ea5\",\"name\":\"Jordan Hathcock\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4443570ee41537a7dacd0bff4fba9431?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4443570ee41537a7dacd0bff4fba9431?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jordan Hathcock\"},\"description\":\"Just a dust-creature who loves experiencing the unknown. Deep, right? Ha! I have a beautiful wife, Kristyn (I call her Kbua) and 3 kids (one girl and two boys)- Brooklynn Brody, and Briggs. We live in Oceanside, CA. We love the beach, family and friends. Always wanting to seize the day and live in the NOW. LOVE a good joke! My purpose here is to show that God is love...and this God is EXACTLY like Jesus (love crucified). I am done with civil religion & empire and their deterrence to creations evolution to peace. I look forward to displaying that true love never fails to give life. Also, dualistic certainty is something that I want to expose. It is getting us nowhere in life. We have to learn to journey through the mystical fog and experience what trusting is all about. Lastly, I am all about having a sense a humor through it all so always looking to not take all of \u201clife\u201d to seriously. In all honesty, I am doing this for my kids. 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Deep, right? Ha! I have a beautiful wife, Kristyn (I call her Kbua) and 3 kids (one girl and two boys)- Brooklynn Brody, and Briggs. We live in Oceanside, CA. We love the beach, family and friends. Always wanting to seize the day and live in the NOW. LOVE a good joke! My purpose here is to show that God is love...and this God is EXACTLY like Jesus (love crucified). I am done with civil religion & empire and their deterrence to creations evolution to peace. I look forward to displaying that true love never fails to give life. Also, dualistic certainty is something that I want to expose. It is getting us nowhere in life. We have to learn to journey through the mystical fog and experience what trusting is all about. Lastly, I am all about having a sense a humor through it all so always looking to not take all of \u201clife\u201d to seriously. In all honesty, I am doing this for my kids. Maybe someday they would like to see their dads wacky ideas in writing.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/author\/jhathcock\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4644"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The fear of becoming irrelevant.
The fear that if you\u2019re not constantly improving, you\u2019re quietly disappearing.<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s Jesus.<\/p>\n
Who, if we\u2019re honest, would not do well in today\u2019s productivity culture.<\/p>\n
He spent thirty years doing\u2026 nothing impressive.<\/p>\n
No platform. No audience. No personal brand strategy. No carefully curated life plan. No side hustle that turned into a podcast about finding your divine calling in twelve easy steps.<\/p>\n
Thirty years of ordinary life.<\/p>\n
Working. Eating. showing up. Being present in a place that would never trend.<\/p>\n
Today, we\u2019d call that wasted time.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d say he wasn\u2019t maximizing his potential.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d encourage him to \u201cstart sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
Then He Started Walking<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nAnd when he finally did step into public life, he didn\u2019t scale it.<\/p>\n
He walked.<\/p>\n
Everywhere.<\/p>\n
Slow enough to be interrupted. Slow enough to notice people. Slow enough to actually see what was in front of him.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s almost offensive how inefficient it is.<\/p>\n
No shortcuts. No optimization. No attempt to speed up the process.<\/p>\n
Just presence, one step at a time.<\/p>\n
\nInterruptions Were Never the Problem<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nWhat\u2019s fascinating is that Jesus didn\u2019t treat interruptions like obstacles.<\/p>\n
He treated them like the point.<\/p>\n
Someone reaches out in desperation and touches his robe. He stops.<\/p>\n
A man cries out from the side of the road. He stops.<\/p>\n
Children interrupt what feels like an important moment. He welcomes them.<\/p>\n
If that was your day, you\u2019d feel behind. You\u2019d feel like everything was getting derailed. You\u2019d feel like you weren\u2019t getting anything done.<\/p>\n
Jesus calls it the Kingdom.<\/p>\n
Because what we label as inconvenience, he recognizes as invitation.<\/p>\n
What we try to manage, he enters into.<\/p>\n
\nThe Tension We Don\u2019t Want to Admit<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nHere\u2019s where it hits.<\/p>\n
We want the peace of Christ.<\/p>\n
We just don\u2019t want to slow down to get it.<\/p>\n
We want a calm mind, but we don\u2019t want to change our pace. We want presence, but we want it to fit inside a life that\u2019s already moving too fast. We want depth, but without losing momentum.<\/p>\n
That combination doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n
The peace Jesus embodies isn\u2019t layered on top of a chaotic life.<\/p>\n
It comes from a reordered one.<\/p>\n
\nYou Can\u2019t Keep Up and Stay Present<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nAt some point, this becomes a choice.<\/p>\n
You can keep up with everything, or you can be present to something.<\/p>\n
But you cannot do both.<\/p>\n
Attention doesn\u2019t work that way. It\u2019s not infinite. Every time you give it to the next thing, you take it away from what\u2019s right in front of you.<\/p>\n
And what\u2019s right in front of you is where your life actually is.<\/p>\n
Not in the next update. Not in the next breakthrough. Not in whatever everyone else is doing.<\/p>\n
Right here.<\/p>\n
Which sounds simple until you try to live it.<\/p>\n
\nPresence Feels Like Losing<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nLet\u2019s be honest about something.<\/p>\n
Choosing presence doesn\u2019t feel like winning.<\/p>\n
It feels like falling behind.<\/p>\n
It feels like you\u2019re missing something important. Like everyone else is moving forward while you\u2019re standing still. Like you\u2019re opting out of a race that everyone else seems committed to winning.<\/p>\n
Your ego doesn\u2019t like that.<\/p>\n
It wants progress. It wants proof. It wants to know that you\u2019re moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n
Jesus rarely offered that kind of reassurance.<\/p>\n
\nMaybe It\u2019s the Wrong Race<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nWhat if the problem isn\u2019t that you\u2019re behind?<\/p>\n
What if the problem is that you\u2019re measuring your life by a system that was never designed to measure what actually matters?<\/p>\n
Because the Kingdom of God doesn\u2019t run on speed.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t reward efficiency.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t care how optimized your life looks from the outside.<\/p>\n
It cares about whether you are present, whether you are awake, whether you are actually living the life in front of you.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a completely different game.<\/p>\n
And most of us are still trying to win the old one.<\/p>\n
\nYou\u2019re Not a Machine<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nAnd this matters more than we think.<\/p>\n
You get tired.<\/p>\n
You lose focus.<\/p>\n
You doubt yourself.<\/p>\n
You need rest, connection, silence, meaning.<\/p>\n
None of that is a flaw.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n
But instead of honoring that, we\u2019ve started treating those things like bugs in the system. Like something to fix, something to eliminate, something to upgrade out of.<\/p>\n
And yet the entire story of Christ moves in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n
God doesn\u2019t become more efficient.<\/p>\n
God becomes human.<\/p>\n
Limited. Present. Interruptible.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not a downgrade.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the revelation.<\/p>\n
\nThe Quiet Rebellion<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nSo what do you do with all this? I do not know (gasp)\u2026<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think you have to throw your phone away or disappear into the woods.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t about rejecting the world.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about refusing to measure yourself by it.<\/p>\n
Refusing to believe that your value is tied to your pace.<\/p>\n
Refusing to let comparison define your worth.<\/p>\n
There is a quiet kind of rebellion in that.<\/p>\n
Not loud. Not dramatic.<\/p>\n
Just a steady refusal to rush past your own life.<\/p>\n
\nYou Don\u2019t Have to Keep Up<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nYou don\u2019t have to keep up with the A.I.-s.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to match the pace.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to prove that you\u2019re still relevant.<\/p>\n
Because the life Jesus invites you into isn\u2019t moving that fast.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s slower.<\/p>\n
Deeper.<\/p>\n
More present than you\u2019re comfortable with.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s exactly why it feels like you\u2019re falling behind when you first step into it.<\/p>\n
But you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re just finally stepping out of a race that was never going to give you what you were looking for in the first place.<\/p>\n
And for the first time in a while\u2026<\/p>\n
you might actually be where you are.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a nicer grill. You\u2019d notice it.You\u2019d pretend not to care.And then, three weeks later, you\u2019d somehow own a slightly better grill like it was your civic duty. That was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4644,"featured_media":2630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Keeping Up with the A.I.-s<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Keeping Up with the A.I.-s\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christianity Cracking Up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-22T15:55:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1475\/2026\/04\/ai_blog_image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jordan Hathcock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jordan Hathcock\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\",\"name\":\"Keeping Up with the A.I.-s\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-22T15:55:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-22T15:55:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#\/schema\/person\/f03e384a56fa0c254e46ce7ce07d0ea5\"},\"description\":\"Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Keeping Up with the A.I.-s\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/\",\"name\":\"Christianity Cracking Up\",\"description\":\"Experiencing genuine spirituality by embracing our sense of humor.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#\/schema\/person\/f03e384a56fa0c254e46ce7ce07d0ea5\",\"name\":\"Jordan Hathcock\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4443570ee41537a7dacd0bff4fba9431?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4443570ee41537a7dacd0bff4fba9431?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jordan Hathcock\"},\"description\":\"Just a dust-creature who loves experiencing the unknown. Deep, right? Ha! I have a beautiful wife, Kristyn (I call her Kbua) and 3 kids (one girl and two boys)- Brooklynn Brody, and Briggs. We live in Oceanside, CA. We love the beach, family and friends. Always wanting to seize the day and live in the NOW. LOVE a good joke! My purpose here is to show that God is love...and this God is EXACTLY like Jesus (love crucified). I am done with civil religion & empire and their deterrence to creations evolution to peace. I look forward to displaying that true love never fails to give life. Also, dualistic certainty is something that I want to expose. It is getting us nowhere in life. We have to learn to journey through the mystical fog and experience what trusting is all about. Lastly, I am all about having a sense a humor through it all so always looking to not take all of \u201clife\u201d to seriously. In all honesty, I am doing this for my kids. 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Deep, right? Ha! I have a beautiful wife, Kristyn (I call her Kbua) and 3 kids (one girl and two boys)- Brooklynn Brody, and Briggs. We live in Oceanside, CA. We love the beach, family and friends. Always wanting to seize the day and live in the NOW. LOVE a good joke! My purpose here is to show that God is love...and this God is EXACTLY like Jesus (love crucified). I am done with civil religion & empire and their deterrence to creations evolution to peace. I look forward to displaying that true love never fails to give life. Also, dualistic certainty is something that I want to expose. It is getting us nowhere in life. We have to learn to journey through the mystical fog and experience what trusting is all about. Lastly, I am all about having a sense a humor through it all so always looking to not take all of \u201clife\u201d to seriously. In all honesty, I am doing this for my kids. Maybe someday they would like to see their dads wacky ideas in writing.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/author\/jhathcock\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4644"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
What\u2019s fascinating is that Jesus didn\u2019t treat interruptions like obstacles.<\/p>\n
He treated them like the point.<\/p>\n
Someone reaches out in desperation and touches his robe. He stops.<\/p>\n
A man cries out from the side of the road. He stops.<\/p>\n
Children interrupt what feels like an important moment. He welcomes them.<\/p>\n
If that was your day, you\u2019d feel behind. You\u2019d feel like everything was getting derailed. You\u2019d feel like you weren\u2019t getting anything done.<\/p>\n
Jesus calls it the Kingdom.<\/p>\n
Because what we label as inconvenience, he recognizes as invitation.<\/p>\n
What we try to manage, he enters into.<\/p>\n
\n
The Tension We Don\u2019t Want to Admit<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nHere\u2019s where it hits.<\/p>\n
We want the peace of Christ.<\/p>\n
We just don\u2019t want to slow down to get it.<\/p>\n
We want a calm mind, but we don\u2019t want to change our pace. We want presence, but we want it to fit inside a life that\u2019s already moving too fast. We want depth, but without losing momentum.<\/p>\n
That combination doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n
The peace Jesus embodies isn\u2019t layered on top of a chaotic life.<\/p>\n
It comes from a reordered one.<\/p>\n
\nYou Can\u2019t Keep Up and Stay Present<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nAt some point, this becomes a choice.<\/p>\n
You can keep up with everything, or you can be present to something.<\/p>\n
But you cannot do both.<\/p>\n
Attention doesn\u2019t work that way. It\u2019s not infinite. Every time you give it to the next thing, you take it away from what\u2019s right in front of you.<\/p>\n
And what\u2019s right in front of you is where your life actually is.<\/p>\n
Not in the next update. Not in the next breakthrough. Not in whatever everyone else is doing.<\/p>\n
Right here.<\/p>\n
Which sounds simple until you try to live it.<\/p>\n
\nPresence Feels Like Losing<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nLet\u2019s be honest about something.<\/p>\n
Choosing presence doesn\u2019t feel like winning.<\/p>\n
It feels like falling behind.<\/p>\n
It feels like you\u2019re missing something important. Like everyone else is moving forward while you\u2019re standing still. Like you\u2019re opting out of a race that everyone else seems committed to winning.<\/p>\n
Your ego doesn\u2019t like that.<\/p>\n
It wants progress. It wants proof. It wants to know that you\u2019re moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n
Jesus rarely offered that kind of reassurance.<\/p>\n
\nMaybe It\u2019s the Wrong Race<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nWhat if the problem isn\u2019t that you\u2019re behind?<\/p>\n
What if the problem is that you\u2019re measuring your life by a system that was never designed to measure what actually matters?<\/p>\n
Because the Kingdom of God doesn\u2019t run on speed.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t reward efficiency.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t care how optimized your life looks from the outside.<\/p>\n
It cares about whether you are present, whether you are awake, whether you are actually living the life in front of you.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a completely different game.<\/p>\n
And most of us are still trying to win the old one.<\/p>\n
\nYou\u2019re Not a Machine<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nAnd this matters more than we think.<\/p>\n
You get tired.<\/p>\n
You lose focus.<\/p>\n
You doubt yourself.<\/p>\n
You need rest, connection, silence, meaning.<\/p>\n
None of that is a flaw.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n
But instead of honoring that, we\u2019ve started treating those things like bugs in the system. Like something to fix, something to eliminate, something to upgrade out of.<\/p>\n
And yet the entire story of Christ moves in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n
God doesn\u2019t become more efficient.<\/p>\n
God becomes human.<\/p>\n
Limited. Present. Interruptible.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not a downgrade.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the revelation.<\/p>\n
\nThe Quiet Rebellion<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nSo what do you do with all this? I do not know (gasp)\u2026<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think you have to throw your phone away or disappear into the woods.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t about rejecting the world.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about refusing to measure yourself by it.<\/p>\n
Refusing to believe that your value is tied to your pace.<\/p>\n
Refusing to let comparison define your worth.<\/p>\n
There is a quiet kind of rebellion in that.<\/p>\n
Not loud. Not dramatic.<\/p>\n
Just a steady refusal to rush past your own life.<\/p>\n
\nYou Don\u2019t Have to Keep Up<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nYou don\u2019t have to keep up with the A.I.-s.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to match the pace.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to prove that you\u2019re still relevant.<\/p>\n
Because the life Jesus invites you into isn\u2019t moving that fast.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s slower.<\/p>\n
Deeper.<\/p>\n
More present than you\u2019re comfortable with.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s exactly why it feels like you\u2019re falling behind when you first step into it.<\/p>\n
But you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re just finally stepping out of a race that was never going to give you what you were looking for in the first place.<\/p>\n
And for the first time in a while\u2026<\/p>\n
you might actually be where you are.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a nicer grill. You\u2019d notice it.You\u2019d pretend not to care.And then, three weeks later, you\u2019d somehow own a slightly better grill like it was your civic duty. That was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4644,"featured_media":2630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Keeping Up with the A.I.-s<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Keeping Up with the A.I.-s\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christianity Cracking Up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-22T15:55:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1475\/2026\/04\/ai_blog_image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jordan Hathcock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jordan Hathcock\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\",\"name\":\"Keeping Up with the A.I.-s\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-22T15:55:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-22T15:55:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#\/schema\/person\/f03e384a56fa0c254e46ce7ce07d0ea5\"},\"description\":\"Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Keeping Up with the A.I.-s\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/\",\"name\":\"Christianity Cracking Up\",\"description\":\"Experiencing genuine spirituality by embracing our sense of humor.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#\/schema\/person\/f03e384a56fa0c254e46ce7ce07d0ea5\",\"name\":\"Jordan Hathcock\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4443570ee41537a7dacd0bff4fba9431?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4443570ee41537a7dacd0bff4fba9431?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jordan Hathcock\"},\"description\":\"Just a dust-creature who loves experiencing the unknown. 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At some point, this becomes a choice.<\/p>\n
You can keep up with everything, or you can be present to something.<\/p>\n
But you cannot do both.<\/p>\n
Attention doesn\u2019t work that way. It\u2019s not infinite. Every time you give it to the next thing, you take it away from what\u2019s right in front of you.<\/p>\n
And what\u2019s right in front of you is where your life actually is.<\/p>\n
Not in the next update. Not in the next breakthrough. Not in whatever everyone else is doing.<\/p>\n
Right here.<\/p>\n
Which sounds simple until you try to live it.<\/p>\n
\n
Presence Feels Like Losing<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nLet\u2019s be honest about something.<\/p>\n
Choosing presence doesn\u2019t feel like winning.<\/p>\n
It feels like falling behind.<\/p>\n
It feels like you\u2019re missing something important. Like everyone else is moving forward while you\u2019re standing still. Like you\u2019re opting out of a race that everyone else seems committed to winning.<\/p>\n
Your ego doesn\u2019t like that.<\/p>\n
It wants progress. It wants proof. It wants to know that you\u2019re moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n
Jesus rarely offered that kind of reassurance.<\/p>\n
\nMaybe It\u2019s the Wrong Race<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nWhat if the problem isn\u2019t that you\u2019re behind?<\/p>\n
What if the problem is that you\u2019re measuring your life by a system that was never designed to measure what actually matters?<\/p>\n
Because the Kingdom of God doesn\u2019t run on speed.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t reward efficiency.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t care how optimized your life looks from the outside.<\/p>\n
It cares about whether you are present, whether you are awake, whether you are actually living the life in front of you.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a completely different game.<\/p>\n
And most of us are still trying to win the old one.<\/p>\n
\nYou\u2019re Not a Machine<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nAnd this matters more than we think.<\/p>\n
You get tired.<\/p>\n
You lose focus.<\/p>\n
You doubt yourself.<\/p>\n
You need rest, connection, silence, meaning.<\/p>\n
None of that is a flaw.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n
But instead of honoring that, we\u2019ve started treating those things like bugs in the system. Like something to fix, something to eliminate, something to upgrade out of.<\/p>\n
And yet the entire story of Christ moves in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n
God doesn\u2019t become more efficient.<\/p>\n
God becomes human.<\/p>\n
Limited. Present. Interruptible.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not a downgrade.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the revelation.<\/p>\n
\nThe Quiet Rebellion<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nSo what do you do with all this? I do not know (gasp)\u2026<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think you have to throw your phone away or disappear into the woods.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t about rejecting the world.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about refusing to measure yourself by it.<\/p>\n
Refusing to believe that your value is tied to your pace.<\/p>\n
Refusing to let comparison define your worth.<\/p>\n
There is a quiet kind of rebellion in that.<\/p>\n
Not loud. Not dramatic.<\/p>\n
Just a steady refusal to rush past your own life.<\/p>\n
\nYou Don\u2019t Have to Keep Up<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nYou don\u2019t have to keep up with the A.I.-s.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to match the pace.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to prove that you\u2019re still relevant.<\/p>\n
Because the life Jesus invites you into isn\u2019t moving that fast.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s slower.<\/p>\n
Deeper.<\/p>\n
More present than you\u2019re comfortable with.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s exactly why it feels like you\u2019re falling behind when you first step into it.<\/p>\n
But you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re just finally stepping out of a race that was never going to give you what you were looking for in the first place.<\/p>\n
And for the first time in a while\u2026<\/p>\n
you might actually be where you are.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a nicer grill. You\u2019d notice it.You\u2019d pretend not to care.And then, three weeks later, you\u2019d somehow own a slightly better grill like it was your civic duty. That was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4644,"featured_media":2630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Keeping Up with the A.I.-s<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Keeping Up with the A.I.-s\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christianity Cracking Up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-22T15:55:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1475\/2026\/04\/ai_blog_image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jordan Hathcock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jordan Hathcock\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\",\"name\":\"Keeping Up with the A.I.-s\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-22T15:55:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-22T15:55:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#\/schema\/person\/f03e384a56fa0c254e46ce7ce07d0ea5\"},\"description\":\"Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/2026\/04\/keeping-up-with-the-a-i-s\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Keeping Up with the A.I.-s\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/\",\"name\":\"Christianity Cracking Up\",\"description\":\"Experiencing genuine spirituality by embracing our sense of humor.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#\/schema\/person\/f03e384a56fa0c254e46ce7ce07d0ea5\",\"name\":\"Jordan Hathcock\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/spiritualitycrackingup\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4443570ee41537a7dacd0bff4fba9431?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4443570ee41537a7dacd0bff4fba9431?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jordan Hathcock\"},\"description\":\"Just a dust-creature who loves experiencing the unknown. 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What if the problem isn\u2019t that you\u2019re behind?<\/p>\n
What if the problem is that you\u2019re measuring your life by a system that was never designed to measure what actually matters?<\/p>\n
Because the Kingdom of God doesn\u2019t run on speed.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t reward efficiency.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t care how optimized your life looks from the outside.<\/p>\n
It cares about whether you are present, whether you are awake, whether you are actually living the life in front of you.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a completely different game.<\/p>\n
And most of us are still trying to win the old one.<\/p>\n
\n
You\u2019re Not a Machine<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nAnd this matters more than we think.<\/p>\n
You get tired.<\/p>\n
You lose focus.<\/p>\n
You doubt yourself.<\/p>\n
You need rest, connection, silence, meaning.<\/p>\n
None of that is a flaw.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n
But instead of honoring that, we\u2019ve started treating those things like bugs in the system. Like something to fix, something to eliminate, something to upgrade out of.<\/p>\n
And yet the entire story of Christ moves in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n
God doesn\u2019t become more efficient.<\/p>\n
God becomes human.<\/p>\n
Limited. Present. Interruptible.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not a downgrade.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the revelation.<\/p>\n
\nThe Quiet Rebellion<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nSo what do you do with all this? I do not know (gasp)\u2026<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think you have to throw your phone away or disappear into the woods.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t about rejecting the world.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about refusing to measure yourself by it.<\/p>\n
Refusing to believe that your value is tied to your pace.<\/p>\n
Refusing to let comparison define your worth.<\/p>\n
There is a quiet kind of rebellion in that.<\/p>\n
Not loud. Not dramatic.<\/p>\n
Just a steady refusal to rush past your own life.<\/p>\n
\nYou Don\u2019t Have to Keep Up<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nYou don\u2019t have to keep up with the A.I.-s.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to match the pace.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to prove that you\u2019re still relevant.<\/p>\n
Because the life Jesus invites you into isn\u2019t moving that fast.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s slower.<\/p>\n
Deeper.<\/p>\n
More present than you\u2019re comfortable with.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s exactly why it feels like you\u2019re falling behind when you first step into it.<\/p>\n
But you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re just finally stepping out of a race that was never going to give you what you were looking for in the first place.<\/p>\n
And for the first time in a while\u2026<\/p>\n
you might actually be where you are.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Part II: When Your Neighbor\u2019s Robot Is Holier Than You There was a time\u2014not that long ago\u2014when \u201cKeeping Up with the Joneses\u201d meant your neighbor got a nicer grill. You\u2019d notice it.You\u2019d pretend not to care.And then, three weeks later, you\u2019d somehow own a slightly better grill like it was your civic duty. That was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4644,"featured_media":2630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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So what do you do with all this? I do not know (gasp)\u2026<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think you have to throw your phone away or disappear into the woods.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t about rejecting the world.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about refusing to measure yourself by it.<\/p>\n
Refusing to believe that your value is tied to your pace.<\/p>\n
Refusing to let comparison define your worth.<\/p>\n
There is a quiet kind of rebellion in that.<\/p>\n
Not loud. Not dramatic.<\/p>\n
Just a steady refusal to rush past your own life.<\/p>\n
\n