I have spent the year talking to you about taking the risks you need to take to learn, about not giving up, about doing the hard things, about valuing the journey of life and learning the lessons, about dusting yourself off and picking yourself up, but I need to tell you something. I am sorry, I was wrong! I am so sorry, apparently, I have lied to you, led you astray!

I can’t believe I have done it.

You see, I was reading the other day about Google, you all know Google right? The search engine where you go and you type in something and it gives you all this information and then you read it and make your own mind up? You know that one?

Well, I assume you have seen it has changed a little right? You now type something in, and it gives you an AI generated summary of the information with links to the sites you can then go to and search to make your own mind up.

It’s a search engine, right? So, its original job was to gather up all the information on the internet, all of it, and then show us what it found. Websites that we then looked up and read and made our own mind up.

Now, using AI, it gives us a summary of it all. Which is awesome, less work, right. Now, we just read the summary. Right? We don’t really need to look at the websites, just trust Google AI.

Well, I found out this week, that within a year or so it will no longer be called a search engine. It will be an answer engine! As in, the AI will be so good, that when you search you will not search – you will ask, and it will tell you. So, Google will become the source of our answers.

Awesome right?

I don’t have to do anything now but ask Google and it’s all good! No more hard work, no more searching and reading and thinking, no more thinking for myself, just ask Google and I will have the answer! Within seconds too! Apparently, the point is not growing, learning, searching, or making my own mind up, what matters most is just quickly getting Google’s answer. Sorry, the answer. Sorry, an answer. It is just about getting an answer!

Oh man, I am so sorry.

All that stuff about taking the risks you need to learn, about not giving up, about doing the hard things, about valuing the journey of life and learning the lessons, about dusting yourself off and picking yourself up, when all this time, the answer was right there – Google!

Okay, I can learn and change, no worries. New rule: just Google it. Then life will be easy, you will have the answer, and the answer will set you free and there will be no cost to you… Great.

Wait, cost, no, hang on…

There’s a problem. I was reading a different article this week about the answers AI and Google can give. You may have read this too, about a company that was hired by the government to write a policy and they were paid 440K to write it, so they did what you guys have just been told to do – they AI’d it and solved it and made money and all was good.

Except… The answer was wrong…

Literally wrong: It had made up legal cases it used as evidence and even made up and quoted a judge. It was based on lies! And, when the government found out, they made the people give heaps of the money back and fix the policy. They had to do more work for less money!

Maybe I am right? Maybe they should have gone on the whole journey and added the human back into it, checked it and then gone to the solution? Cutting the corners and only worrying about the answer cost them. Going the full journey would have been a way better option!

So, maybe I have been right all year?

Cutting corners on life doesn’t help. Focusing only on the end doesn’t help. Thinking the final answer or exam is what it is all about maybe, whilst important, isn’t the most important thing?

But the thing is, Term 4 is the crunch, right? The term when you have exams and get results. If you are in Year 12 it’s your last exams and you get a final score to get into Uni or not! It really counts now, so I wonder if you are still willing to take the risks, do the hard things, not give up, or if now you want to change things and just cut to the end, give up even? 440K on the line right?

Nope, still don’t do it.

Listen, not only does the Bible tell us to persevere and develop who we are, so we have hope, it also says that when we respect and admire God we get wisdom and by knowing him we get understanding. It seems the Bible tells us that God was there before Google and AI and He is a better first option for answers? So, search to know who He is and what He says…

I am not saying AI is wrong, I am not saying Google is wrong, I think they could be very beneficial when used wisely, but I am saying that the wisdom to use the tool well, that comes from the journey of life, that comes from the wisdom we get from relationships and knowing God, that comes from understanding who God is and what God has for us.

When we search, when we seek, when we do the hard thing, make the hard choice, try and fall down and get up again, ask the difficult questions and take time to find the answer for yourself...

When we do this, when we really seek, when we persevere and endure and we are building a character that sees there is more to life, there is a way though, there is joy in the difficult, love in the sadness, hope in the darkness. Hope.

When we do this, we build hope. Hope that there is more to this life, hope that you can do hard things, hope that you will get through, hope that you can do it, hope that you are enough, more than enough, hope that God doesn’t make mistakes and you are not one; you have a gift too, one that we all will benefit from, but it is something that you need to go on a journey to learn about to use well.

So, I guess it is up to you… Are you willing to?

Are you willing to take the risks and make the decisions that might lead to you crashing out, being laughed at, getting hurt a little, - because this is the journey, this is what matters. Life happens in between the question and the answer, life happens in between the hearing and then the doing, life happens between the start and the finish line and are you going to take the risk to value the part in between, the journey, the wrestle, the hard, the easy, the fun the boring, the happy and the sad?

This term, right now, when study is hard, will you get back to work knowing you are developing habits for success when you are older, when the results don’t go your way will you try again knowing it doesn’t define you, persevering will lead to the character that will define you, when your friends try to make you do something you know is not good for you or others, will you give in to be liked or will you stand up for what is right knowing you are developing the strengths that others can rely on…

I could give more and more examples but the truth is this: when we are willing to persevere in what God’s calls us to be, when we are willing to endure what he calls us to do, then we will develop a character that will bring hope, and the hope will not be for just you, but for everyone around you.

Good tidings,

Jonno

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