Series: The Formed Future
Primary Scripture: John 1:14
Episode focus: In an increasingly automated world, becoming more fully human means recovering spiritual attentiveness, embodiment, and presence—using technology to serve human life rather than letting efficiency replace it.
In This Episode
Why awareness is more than self-observation: spiritual attentiveness notices what is happening within us, around us, between people, and before God
How the Word becoming flesh in John 1:14 places embodiment and presence near the center of Christian life
The movement Image → Incarnation → Presence: bearing God’s image, seeing God’s life embodied in Christ, and becoming present to others
Why greater technological capability does not automatically make us more human
How AI can remove repetitive work so human energy can return to imagination, relationship, discernment, creativity, and care
The difference between using AI as a production system and allowing AI to become the source of our imagination or spiritual direction
What hospice and pastoral presence teach about the power of staying with another person when there is nothing left to fix
A practical four-part presence practice: notice yourself, the other person, the environment, and what God may be doing in the moment
Formation Practice
Choose one ordinary interaction today and resist the urge to move through it automatically. Notice what is happening within you. Attend to the other person rather than preparing your next response. Notice the room, pace, and emotional atmosphere. Then ask quietly: What might God be doing here, and what kind of presence does love require from me? Let efficiency serve the encounter rather than replace it.
Key Lines
“I do the imagining. My AI production system does the tasks.”
“The goal of AI is not to remove the human from the work. It is to remove enough of the work that AI can do quickly and efficiently so the human can become more fully present.”
Next Episode
TBU 110 — Called Into a Future We Cannot See. The next step asks how vocation and faithful participation work when the future is real but not yet fully visible.
Production Notes
All Bible quotations in the episode are from the World English Bible. Theme music: “Awesome Call” by Kevin MacLeod, used under Creative Commons license. Content copyright 2026 J. Brent Eaton. A Power Love and Miracles production.
The Bible Unplugged • Power Love and Miracles
Scripture quotations in the episode are from the World English Bible.
