Our Relationship Prescriptions podcast has just completed a short series on AI and the Soul. These conversations have challenged me to step up how intentional I am in my rule of life – the daily/weekly/periodic elements I proactively incorporate that help me become who I choose to be and who God is calling me to be.

Professor Dr. John Dyer challenged me to understand that beyond any content, the tools we use affect us. In the case of AI, it’s callouses on our minds/souls. Pastor/author Jay Kim addressed how the digital world can never replace the embodied nature of our Christian faith. And psychologist Jason VanRuler discussed how we must steward technology in setting healthy digital boundaries, protecting presence, and prioritizing what matters most.

Our digital life, especially with the explosion of AI, has discipled us to believe life is/should be easy, quick, constantly stimulating, and under our control. That’s an illusion, especially when it comes to our souls. In reality, spiritual formation is comparatively hard, slow, often boring, and not in our control.

You are being formed whether you realize it or not. But there is great danger in drifting; that never gets you to where you want to go – certainly not in achieving the goal of the Christian life, which is to become like Jesus.

There’s much in our world that we have little control over. If you’re a leader or developer in an AI company your response to what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus in that setting will have additional implications. But our personal responses, the way we individually live, will greatly impact our own souls. What should that look like?

My Own Concerns About AI

I use AI regularly – both intentionally, and through its embeddedness in so many dimensions of our world. But here are my own concerns about what our digital lives and particularly AI are doing to our becoming.

• Loss of critical thinking “muscles.” Part of humankind’s nature, being created in God’s image, is to “rule and reign” over our domain. (See Gen. 1:26-28, Rev. 5:10) But in a large study knowledge workers self-reported a decrease in critical thinking skills with regular use of AI. Relying on AI risks “outsourcing” our core “job” as humans.
• Further erosion of emotional self-regulation skills. A majority of the people I work with struggle with navigating their inner world, either stuffing their emotions or letting feelings run the show. Digital tools by-and-large add to this challenge rather than helping it. Addiction, isolation, and a solely superficial inner life are starving people’s hearts of nourishment and goodness.
• Assumptions that hard, slow, out-of-control, and boring is bad. Evidence and examples abound that resilience and transformation come through time – and challenges. It’s not that saving time and effort is bad; it’s that we need to remain vigilant in schooling both ourselves and young people coming after us that challenges are to be embraced and learned from, not run away from.
• Disrupting the building of true intimacy with others and with God. People and people skills are hard. Talk about slow and out-of-control; relationships are messy! Building connection takes time and effort – both with people and with God. With the current most-frequent use of AI being therapy and companionship, we have a lot of work to do in nurturing human relationships.

So how shall we then live?

Toward a Rule of Life

The idea of a rule of life is not new and it’s not burdensome. You have a rule of life now; it’s simply the way you do things. A rule of life was first articulated by early monks a few centuries after Jesus. And note that it’s rule, not rules; this is not a list of do’s and don’ts. It’s simply a trellis on which to base building your life, a way of being intentional in your formation – spiritual and otherwise.

A rule of life is simply the way you choose to live. It incorporates some things you might need to say NO to, but even more important it what you say YES to. It’s about putting in place the big rocks first so that the little rocks and the sand of daily life don’t disrupt what you value most. It’s not legalism, but intentional patterns for formation, for choosing how you will be shaped.

Some rules of life are detailed and can feel complicated. But it doesn’t have to be that way. As a place to start, here are a few aspects of my rule of life:

• Time with God first thing in the morning. I don’t open my phone, check messages, or read emails before I’ve completed my dedicated time with Him. I spend about an hour; you may not be able to do that. But whether long or short, this time is vital.
• “Parenting” my screen time. Much of my work requires being online; that can easily take over my awareness and my life. On laptop days I plan intentional breaks where I walk away from everything digital; it resets my mind. And I am religious about turning off all screens at a certain time each evening.
• Getting outside daily. There’s nothing like God’s green earth, fresh air, and the natural world to nourish our souls. And our physical bodies were made to move. Every day I schedule time to get outdoors, usually with a walk/jog. Both my mental health and my physical health absolutely require this.
• Connect with others. Connecting with others is not natural for me; I have to intentionally exert time and effort to do so. SO, I have a couple friends I speak with every week. And every month I gather a group of ladies at my home for an evening of conversation and prayer. It’s not formal; it’s intentional connection. We tell stories and address common challenges.
• Rhythms of work and rest. I could naturally allow work to eat up all hours of every day. So I proactively decide what hour I’m going to bed at night; that makes a productive day possible the next day. And I stop all work for a 24-hour sabbath each week; that rhythm allows my soul to breathe, connect with God more deeply, and have the resilience to continue doing what He has given me to do.

There are other parameters I live by, including how I manage money, the media content I allow into my mind, proactive self-development, and more. But the above are the basics.

If you don’t want the algorithms to decide who you will become, you need your own rule of life. It may look similar to mine or it may look different. Just realize that you are being formed. You get to choose the shape of that formation.

And I would submit that living as Jesus did is likely to lead to the kind of formation you most long for.

(If you’re interested in more about a rule of life as a follower of Jesus, John Mark Comer’s book Practicing the Way is excellent.)

Why not be more thoughtful about your “rule of life?!”

Your Turn: What do you notice about how digital tools including AI are impacting your soul? What’s your current rule of life? What changes might you need to make?  Leave a comment below.

Want more? On this week’s podcast I talk more about my reflections on our series AI and the Soul, and how an intentional rule of life is an appropriate response. Listen or watch.

Tweetables: why not share this post?

• In an AI-saturated world the algorithms have a plan for your life. If you don’t want to follow their plan for you, developing an intentional rule of life will be your best response. Tweet that.

Live More Fully Alive

You do have a choice. If you want to live more Fully Alive, drifting won’t get you where you there. But there are some very simple steps that will get you a lot farther in that direction than you are now.

This free download 7 Keys to Living More Fully Alive just might open the door to the kind of life you’ve longed for.