Christians and Technology, Part 3: Technology and Self-Sufficiency—Reflecting on Dependence

00:00 - James Spencer (Host)
Gratitude really does reorient our hearts toward dependence and trust in God. Daily practices of reflection and prayer and acknowledgement of God's goodness they just help us remember our reliance on Him. They help make Him more present in our daily lives. By recognizing our dependence, we can experience the joy and peace from a heart aligned with His purpose.

00:19 - Speaker 2 (None)
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00:54 - James Spencer (Host)
Hey everyone, this is Dr James Spencer and you're listening to the PREPPED Podcast. This is our last episode on technology in the Christian life before we get back to the book of Genesis. In the first episode, we explored human capacity and the need for discernment in aligning our actions with God's purposes, and that was largely rooted in the Tower of Babel narrative in Genesis 11, one through nine. If you haven't listened to that episode, I encourage you to go back and check it out. In the second episode of our technology series, we examined the concept of progress and talked about how our pursuits need to be guided by eternal goals and not by disordered loves. And so today we're going to focus on the problem of self-sufficiency and the illusion of independence fostered by technology. You know, as humans, we are created to be dependent on God and on one another. We're created to be dependent on God and not independent from him. Yet the modern world often equates dependence with weakness, and technology frequently reinforces the illusion that we can live independently from God. And in this episode, we're going to unpack this theme by exploring some key issues. Number one the theological foundations of human limitation as a created state, incorporating insights from Alicia Uaro's work on context and constraint. Number two, the illusion of independence cultivated by technology, drawing from Jacques Allul's work and his ideas on efficiency. And then three, how self-sufficiency erodes gratitude and reliance on God, summarized through the themes from an article I wrote on the Christian Post. And finally, we'll close with a reflection on the Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein, recognizing the beauty of incompleteness and our need for dependence. And this discussion is particularly timely in an age where technological advancements seem to produce and promise that we can overcome every limitation. As we dive deeper, we'll reflect on how these promises shape our understanding of God, ourselves and the world around us. And if you've enjoyed this series, I just encourage you to share it or leave a review. Your engagement really does help us continue to explore these meaningful conversations.

03:03
Let's begin. And one of the most countercultural truths in scripture is that human limitation is not a flaw. It's part of God's good design. From the beginning, humanity was created to be dependent on God. And in Genesis 1 and 2, we see that Adam and Eve were placed in the garden not as autonomous beings but as caretakers who relied on God for life, purpose and provision. And their dependence was not a weakness but a feature of their relationship with their creator. And so what we really see in Genesis 1 and 2, and what I want to underscore here, the limitation is not about human sin. Yes, human sin certainly comes into the picture in Genesis 3. But ultimately, what we see in Genesis 1 and 2 is a life within boundaries, and we could probably it probably is helpful to think about it like that.

03:52
If we think in terms of a game a soccer game, a basketball game, a football game most games have boundaries and borders. They occur within a set space, and that set space allows for fair competition. It allows for people to actually play the game in a relatively cadenced fashion, for there to be a time limit to the game, for instance, and so most games have this. And so, if we think about that analogy with the game, what's going on in Genesis 1 and 2 is that God is setting boundaries for humankind. Here is the creation, these are all the things that are in creation. He's given them dominion over all those things in creation, and yet he's also placed them in the garden. He's asked them to guard it and keep it, which probably reflects a more of a priestly function, and I think we talked about that in a previous episode, so I won't go into it here. But then he also prohibits them from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden. And that prohibition is sort of the limit of the game. It's a boundary marker and it says you all are going to be made in my image. You're going to do certain things and you're going to depend on me for provision for sustenance, for everything you could possibly ever need, and then as long as you don't do this, that's your boundary marker. Don't go past that. That's out of bounds and we'll play this game together. And that creates a system essentially of limits.

05:26
We also probably see the limitation in Genesis 2, where God creates woman to be with man, and I know we've talked about this in the past. The whole Ezra concept, and what really it is, is that man had a shortcoming. It isn't that, you know, man was horrible or that God's creation was marred in some way. It's just to do what God wanted man to do woman needed to be there. And so we see these sort of different sets of limitations and the way that they aren't intended to constrain humanity, which is what the serpent ultimately accuses God of in Genesis 1 or Genesis 3, 1 through 7, is that God is holding humanity back, that these limitations are actually. They're not designed to help humanity flourish, they're designed to hold humanity back, and that's the way we often think about limitations. There's something that's going to hold us back, but that's how I think we see that in genesis one and two. And so what we find in creation and the creation of humankind is that humans are created as limited creatures designed to be dependent on, not independent from, god.

06:39
Now alicia uaro's work and I hope I'm pronouncing her name right um it. She does a lot of work on context and constraint and I think it helps to illuminate this idea. Basically, she argues that constraints, far from being merely restrictive, are what make meaningful action possible. And, in the same way that the rules of grammar allow for coherent language, the constraints of our human nature enable us to flourish within the context that God has designed. So if you just think about that example of language, for instance, this podcast would be unintelligible if I were speaking in a language that you didn't understand, or if I had just made up my own language and I decided that I was going to communicate like this, even if no one else can understand it. That creates a freedom of sorts, I suppose, that I'm no longer constrained by the rules of English grammar and syntax and vocabulary, but it also means that I can no longer effectively communicate with anyone, and so the language is actually a really good example of what Juaro is discussing here.

07:48
She's basically saying that these constraints, the things that kind of keep us held in, that restrict us, also empower us in many ways. Not that there are no limitations that are restrictive there are but we have to at least evaluate when are these constraints, when are they restrictive in a negative sense and when are they restrictive in a positive sense? And so what I would say is dependence on God and others isn't something that we need to overcome. It's the framework through which we experience true life and purpose. It's the framework in which we flourish. These limitations are not constraints, they're not restrictive, to use Uriah's words, they're not restrictive, they're empowering. They allow us to do things, they enable us to do things that we wouldn't otherwise be able to do.

08:39
Now the fall introduces a distortion of this dependence. Adam and Eve's decision to eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is an attempt to grasp independence from God to become like God on their own terms. And that rejection of dependence has echoed throughout history, fostering the illusion that we can live self-sufficiently, apart from our creator. And so the theme of limitation is woven, I think, throughout scripture, the Israelites in the wilderness were given manna daily, not to hoard but to gather just enough for each day, and this daily dependence reminded them of God's provision and their need to trust him. Similarly, jesus teaches his disciples to pray give us this day our daily bread, and it emphasizes reliance on God's provision rather than human effort. Limitation is also central to the gospel itself. The incarnation reveals that Jesus embraced human limitation, taking on flesh and dwelling among us. His earthly ministry demonstrated dependence on the Father, and his ultimate act of obedience on the cross underscores the power of surrendering to God's will. So dependence is not a deficiency. Dependence is a recognition of our created purpose to live in relationship with God, and in a particular relationship with God. In other words, we are to be dependent on Him, not independent from Him.

10:01
Now, moving on to the second kind of topic, modern technology does often reinforce this illusion of independence, and it does so by prioritizing efficiency and, to some degree, self-reliance. Jacques Ellul's critique of technological society highlights how the pursuit of efficiency becomes a self-justifying goal. In this framework, technology isn't merely a tool. It shapes how we see the world and ourselves, and the more efficient we become, the less we feel the need to depend on others or on God. So consider the ways technology has reduced our sense of vulnerability From on-demand food delivery to medical advancements, we've created systems that shield us from the realities of scarcity, of hardship and mortality. I guess maybe morality too. But while these advancements are not inherently bad, they can actually foster a false sense of control, a false sense of security, and we begin to believe that we can solve every problem, meet every need and secure our own futures without divine intervention or without acknowledging God within this process.

11:14
In some ways, I think this goes back exactly to what we saw in Genesis 11, 1 through 9. You have a community of people who have capacity. They're able to communicate easily with one another. They have the technological ability to bake bricks and to build buildings, and so they look out at the world and they say well, we don't want to be scattered, we'd like to be safe, we'd like to have security, we'd like to be the ones who provide this for other people, and so we're going to use our God-given capacities to create this city and this tower, and ultimately that isn't what God wanted from them. I don't, you know.

11:53
Again, I don't view that Tower of Babel narrative as a straight rebellion. I think this is mostly done out of ignorance. These are people who have the ability to do so, and because they don't have any other framework for understanding what to do, they decide to do what they can do. Maybe that's not what they should have done, and God corrects this error. But what God recognizes in that narrative is that if he doesn't do something, if he doesn't intervene, these humans are largely going to be able to manipulate the world around them without ever acknowledging him. It's not going to get them where God wants them to go, and so they're going to have sufficient comfort, sufficient means, sufficient security that they may never actually seek him. And so he breaks up humanity and pushes us out.

12:47
And I do think that you know technology. In some ways it does drive us back to that impetus of Babel. It allows us to sort of push God to the margins of our lives and say, well, I don't need to ask God for this because I can accomplish it with technology. I think that's probably the best version of the story is that we just feel like we're saving God the trouble. But in saving God the trouble, what we're also doing is we're taking more weight on ourselves and we're separating ourselves from this vital relationship that we're supposed to have with God in order to just solve our own problems. But God has infinite capacity. There's no reason that we shouldn't trouble him with things. But God has infinite capacity. There's no reason that we shouldn't trouble him with things. He is there for our good. And so as we begin to believe that we can solve every problem, meet every need, secure our own futures, without that sort of divine presence, this becomes a problem.

13:45
Jacques Ellul actually warns that this focus on efficiency can blind us to the relational and spiritual dimensions of life. Automated systems may save time, but they often strip away opportunities for empathy and connection, this distancing between us. You know we see this in a number of different areas where we're totally comfortable, for instance, you know, maybe berating someone online that we would never really do in person. If we want a more mundane example than that outside of the digital world, just think about how you think about other drivers on the road, or maybe some of the comments you make about them in the car or the way you critique their driving. Would you actually do that if you were sitting in their passenger seat?

14:24
My guess is that many of us have had the experience I know I have of being harsher to drivers who are more or less anonymous on the road and not even caring whether or not they're having a bad day or whether you know something was going wrong with their car and that's why they're going slower than you wanted them to. Or or maybe their blink blinkers out and you know that change in lanes without their blinker wasn't really their fault, it was just a um, you know, a misfire in the car. Like, we don't really have to know those things because those people are distanced from us. We can pretty much say what we want to say and uh, I, I would just. My wife oftentimes says you know, hey, just keep in mind, that person may be having a really bad day, maybe they're just distracted by something, maybe they're this, maybe they're that, and she tends to have a little bit more empathy, even when we're driving in the car, than I do. And so, you know, we have these sort of technologies that distance us from one another, and this is how not just automated systems do this, but I think technology does tend to distance us from one another. So where are we getting back to? We want to maintain those opportunities for empathy and connection. We want to make sure that we're bridging the distance.

15:45
And so if social media, for instance, allows us to curate lives in ways that project independence and success, masking our true need for community and vulnerability, maybe social media isn't the best thing for us. So I think the danger of this illusion is that it leads to pride. It leads to a belief that we are self-made and self-sufficient. Pride doesn't have to be like oh, I'm so happy about everything I've accomplished. Pride can simply be a leaning toward independence, a leaning away from dependence on God and a deep desire to do what he asks, and a desire for us to live in a way that we determine. And so Proverbs 16, 18 reminds us that pride goes before destruction, and James 4, 6 echoes you know, god opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

16:37
I think technology, if it fosters pride, attempts us to forget our reliance on God. It also narrows our focus to what is efficient or expedient, and that often comes at the expense of spiritual depth and relational health. We need effort in order to change us, in order to transform us. Part of how we grow in Christ is through these experiences. If we just think about some of the teachings in the New Testament about suffering and how suffering forges within us different character traits, this isn't a very real experience. These are effortful things that we go through that change us forever, and so we can't simply sit behind a computer and let something else do the work for us. Part of the process is the effort, and we need that in order to grow in our faith.

17:32
And this illusion of independence, I think, can also distort how we approach challenges. You know, instead of seeking God's wisdom or the support of others, we lean back on technological support. We believe that somehow we can get through this without asking others for help, and so that is the essence of independence we don't feel like we need anyone else, and maybe you know technology actually cultivates this idea that we shouldn't ask anyone else. Why would you ask if you have the technology to take care of it yourself? And so, while I think technology can be helpful obviously I'm doing a podcast and you know we do videos and all this kind of other stuff. I don't think it can replace the trust, humanity, you know, humility, the dependence that God calls us to cultivate. It isn't a replacement. It really is something that we have to think about how to use in a more selective fashion. And I think, more than how we use technology, we need to understand how, when we use technology, it changes our social relationships, and we need to count the cost of what we're losing in those social relationships as we think about what technologies to adopt. So this gets us to our last section.

18:46
Self-sufficiency not only distances us from God, it also erodes our gratitude, and in this article I wrote, I explored how the pursuit of self-sufficiency can really kill our sense of thankfulness. And when we attribute our successes solely to our own efforts, we fail to recognize God's hand in our lives. Gratitude requires an acknowledgement of dependence on God's provision, on the support of others and on the context that allows us to thrive, and we're grateful because someone has given us something that we didn't earn. We're grateful that someone has given us something that we couldn't have gotten ourselves. You know, we're grateful that they took the effort, and so gratitude is a recurring theme in scripture as well, and the Psalms are filled with expressions of thankfulness for God's steadfast love and provision. Paul, even in his suffering, continually thanks God for his grace and strength. Gratitude shifts our focus from what we lack to what God has provided, and it reminds us that every good gift comes from him.

19:51
Yet self-sufficiency cultivates that opposite mindset. When we believe we are the source of our own success, we become less thankful and more entitled. We become, maybe, harder working. I mean, entitlement is part of it, but I also think that there's a sense in which we try to work ourselves out of the situations that we're in, and I find in the New Testament and this is in 1 Corinthians I'm forgetting the chapter right at this moment but Paul talks about remaining as you were when you were called. And what do you?

20:21
I think he's getting at there and you know he talks about. You know, if you're married, remain married. If you're single, remain single. If you're a slave, remain a slave. Though if you can get your freedom, that's fantastic, get your freedom. So it's not intended to be hey, just stay where you are and never change. But I think what Paul is underscoring there is that our situations don't actually need to change for us to be faithful, and then, in fact, our first instinct should not be to work ourselves out of the situations that we're in, but that we should. Our first instinct should be hey, let's be faithful within the situations we find ourselves, and I think oftentimes self-sufficiency cultivates something a little different.

21:00
Self-sufficiency says I'm feeling pain, I'm feeling discomfort, I don't like where I am. I need to do something about this. I'm going to work myself out of this situation. Sometimes that can be good, but other times it can become something where we are just dissatisfied and we're working out of a sense of dissatisfaction as opposed to allowing faithfulness to drive us, and so I think that's the real difference here is that self-sufficiency. It's not a question of hey, never help yourself, just sit around and pray all the time and wait for God to do things. That's not the point. But I think the point is that if we are dissatisfied with our lives to such an extent that we are incapable of faithfulness, incapable of serving God, well then we're probably too dissatisfied with our lives. And as we try to work ourselves out of that situation, what we're doing is we're putting God in the back seat and saying I'll serve you when my life gets better, when what we should be doing is.

21:55
We should be looking and we should be saying you know, I am dissatisfied with my life the way it is. I wish I had some other things. I would love to be in a different situation. I'd rather be more secure. I'd rather have, you know, more money. I'd rather have all these different things, you know, whatever those may be, but I'm going to trust that God knows what he's doing. I'm going to trust that I don't need to work myself out of this situation before being faithful to God, and so I'm going to trust in God. I'm going to be as faithful as possible and I will take the opportunities that he provides, as he provides them as possible, and I will take the opportunities that he provides as he provides them.

22:29
It's a very different orientation. Self-sufficiency says I need to get out of here, regardless of whether I'm faithful or not, or maybe even I need to get out of here while I'm being as faithful as I possibly can in getting out of here, versus the other way, which is I want to be grateful for where God has put me. I'm going to continue being faithful, and if God chooses to change my situation, I'll be pleased with that as well. So gratitude really does reorient our hearts toward dependence and trust in God. And I think, as Christians, cultivating gratitude is a spiritual discipline that counters the pride of self-sufficiency. Daily practices of reflection and prayer and acknowledgement of God's goodness they just help us remember our reliance on Him. They help make Him more present in our daily lives and by recognizing our dependence we can experience the joy and peace that come from a heart aligned with His purpose.

23:25
So to close, I'd just like to reflect on the Missing Piece by Shel Silverstein. I think this simple yet really profound story, it does illustrate something of the journey that we're on and it's, you know, in Shel Silverstein's the Missing Piece. It's this journey of a circle searching for its missing piece. It kind of has more like a Pac-Man look, and the circle believes that finding this piece will make it complete. But when it finally does find that missing piece, it discovers that the missing piece was not unnecessary but that it, in finding that completeness, in eliminating what it viewed as a limitation, it's unable to do things that it could when it had that limitation in the first place. Unable to do things that it could when it had that limitation in the first place Can't sing, can't talk, sort of. You know, the gap in its mouth is filled up, and so now it can't do certain things. And incompleteness, it turns out, was actually a strength. It allowed the circle to roll, to grow and to experience life in ways that it couldn't when it was quote-unquote complete. And so I think this story resonates deeply with the Christian understanding of dependence.

24:31
Our culture often tells us that completeness means independence, but scripture paints a different picture. In 2 Corinthians 12 9, paul writes my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Our incompleteness, our weakness, our dependence on God is not a flaw, it's a gift that allows his grace to shine through us. I think the missing piece really does stand, you know, and remind us that we're not meant to be self-sufficient. We're created to live in a relationship with God, drawing our strength and purpose from him. And so, as Jesus says in John 15, 5, apart from me, you can do nothing. Him. And so, as Jesus says in John 15, 5, apart from me, you can do nothing. Embracing our dependence allows us to experience the fullness of life that comes from abiding in him.

25:15
Thanks for joining me on this final episode in our series on technology and Christian life. We'll be back to Genesis in the next episode. And you know, I think today these themes that we explored of self-sufficiency, of human limitation and the illusion of independence fostered by technology, are really crucial, and I hope that what you'll find in this is an impetus to develop the spiritual discipline of gratitude, cultivating that gratitude in your life. We also encourage the beauty of incompleteness, and I think that you know, as we reflect on how incomplete we actually are and what that incompleteness allows for us in our lives. It allows us to connect with others, to be vulnerable with others, to get to know others and to get to know God.

26:02
We need to recognize that that dependence on God and our dependence on others isn't a weakness. It really is a source of strength. So as we move forward, let's just strive to cultivate humility and gratitude and a deep reliance on God. Technology may offer tools for convenience and efficiency, and those are great, but true flourishing doesn't come from efficiency and convenience. It comes from living in relationship with our creator, and so as we lose that sense of dependence on God and cultivate an independence from him, I don't think we're going to be living the lives that he intended. So we need to embrace our dependence and find joy in the grace that sustains us. Hey, if this series has encouraged you, please share it with a friend or leave a review. Your feedback helps us continue these important conversations and until next time, take care and stay grounded in God's word. See you next time, everybody.

27:03 - Speaker 2 (None)
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