Our living  environments are artificial – and so are our lives.

We like artificial environments, because we can control them. We have switches for light and dark, knobs for heat and cold,  buttons for  picture, channel, volume.

Much of our conscious thinking is occupied with controlling our own immediate situation. “Should I adjust that?  Should I buy that?  Should I eat this?  Should I watch that?” As we think thus,  God has no place in our thoughts – because God speaks to us through things which are out of our control.  The heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1),  but  our pretentious structures and clever gadgets declare only our nauseating preoccupation with ourselves.

God created varying seasons that we might learn to adapt to changes.   We should alter ourselves and our behavior instead of altering the environment that we ourselves need not change.  However, we have opted instead to isolate ourselves from change, to enclose ourselves in uniform, bland, unvarying “comfort”.

Because we have surrounded ourselves with artificiality, our very lives have become artificial, not real.  We are entirely preoccupied with outward conditions – with appearance, feel, taste, and so on.  “Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7).

We live our entire lives like channel surfers, changing the station every ten seconds.  We expend all our mental energy evaluating and selecting, and spend no effort in learning to appreciate and adapt.  We never truly experience anything, because we are too preoccupied with controlling our experiences.

We ourselves have come to resemble artificial intelligence.  Our every action is a conditioned response. We operate entirely by natural intelligence -- but the natural mind cannot comprehend the things of God (1 Co. 2:14).   The spiritual mind is a mind of submission and creative response, not of control.

Let us consciously strive to remove our hands from the  controls, to let our lives follow the wind and not our whims, to be tools and instruments guided and played by the hand of God.