Lent in the Age of AI
Everything in AI is designed and primed for acceleration, and yet spiritually speaking God often asks us to slow down.
Lent in the Age of AI: 40 Days When Everything Moves Fast and God Moves Slow.
In 2023 I wrote a Bible devotional every day. I've never shared them publicly. Last weekend with the help of Claude, I went back through my 2023 daily journal which was over 24,000 words, and I found some patterns. Recurring themes that kept showing up in different forms. Humility vs. pride. Divine timing. Pain as a teacher. Everyday faithfulness. The enemy you can't see.
In my day-to-day from the startups I talk to or the brilliant engineers and team members I collaborate with at Cisco, there's this tension with how blazing fast things move in AI: you feel equal parts exhilarated and terrified. Constant fomo, feeling left behind, that there's some new groundbreaking technology you don't know about yet. The tension is one I've seen (and personally experienced) in tech for a decade: you want to make enough money from startups (and now AI) so you can quit and go be an alpaca farmer in the Idaho mountains.
Everything in AI is designed and primed for acceleration, and yet spiritually speaking God often asks us to slow down. God's timing is not your timing.
What This Series Is
It's a 40-day devotional that starts Ash Wednesday and runs through Holy Saturday.
Each day includes:
- A biblical anchor or scripture
- Tech or current AI references
- Gut-level honesty
- A question to reflect on
- One concrete action to take
This isn't a "get your life together" book. It's a "you're not crazy and you're not alone" book.
Who This Series Is For
If you're a dad in your 30s or 40s navigating mid-life questions while trying to love your family well, this is for you. If you're a driven professional who knows all the productivity hacks but still feels like you're running on empty, this is for you. If you're tired of the Instagram aesthetics and want something real, this is for you.
I wrote this for the guys who want to love their spouse and kids with Godly perfection but faily each day. For the men who are building something that matters but the voice at 2 AM keeps asking, "Is this even worth it?" and "Am I worth it?"
How It's Structured
Week 1: Foundations - Getting honest about where you are (spoiler: the greatest fraud you've ever known is yourself)
Week 2: Preparation - God positions before He promotes (patience in the age of instant everything)
Week 3: Warfare - The opposition is real (you build with one hand and fight with the other)
Week 4: Character - The battle inside you (pride, lust, comparison, self-sufficiency)
Week 5: Legacy - What outlives you (as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord)
Each week ends with a reflection and review questions. Sundays are slightly longer, more worshipful.
Why Lent?
Because Lent begins with ashes. With dust. With the acknowledgment that without God, we're bankrupt. It's 40 days of slowing down in a world that won't stop accelerating. It's the liturgical calendar saying, "Everything moves fast, but consecration takes time."
And honestly? I need this. I need the discipline. I need the reminder that the game has changed—AI will keep evolving, the world will keep accelerating—but God moves slow. And God moves sure.
What's Next
Check out https://substack.com/@lentintheageofai to subscribe for free and read the first post here.
Some of these entries are raw. Some reference my failures as a dad, my struggles with pride, my tendency to ruminate instead of release. I quote everyone from the Apostle Paul to Shia LaBeouf. I talk about Jonathan and David, Nehemiah and Sanballat, Esther and Haman—and how their ancient struggles map onto our modern lives.
If that sounds like something you need, I hope you'll join me for the journey.
Onward.