Alexa

I met Alexa about a year ago. I never realized her potential until I started asking her goofy questions. Let's stump Alexa, right? There’s something novel about adding Alexa, an artificial intelligence assistant, into one’s family.

Just ask for a song or artist and she’ll play it. Ask for a sports score and she’ll give it. Have her check your calendar, weather or traffic and she has the up-to-date information. She can even manage your HEB shopping list. Alexa can quote movies and help with the meaning of life. If you ask her about happiness, she could possibly play Pharrell’s popular song. She’s quite a talented lady and always getting smarter! 

Just think…not only can we have an addiction with our smart phones, we can now purchase a disembodied virtual assistant who can be at our beckon call. She can both change everything and affect nothing. 

With all of Alexa’s abilities, she’s a far cry from the One who knows you inside and out.  God is and will always be at our beckon call. I think we fail to turn to God simply because there are too many other things vying for our time and attention. Why talk to an invisible entity like God, when we have a smart phone in one hand and Alexa in another?

God has had and will always have sovereign will over the universe. I find the greatest peace in my life when I live knowing He is God and I am not. He doesn’t answer all my questions at the moment I ask them. God does as He pleases, not as I beg. I’ve prayed some prayers for years and years, only to receive a “no.” God used those “no’s” to draw me closer to Him. Just because God doesn’t sit like an Echo on my counter and respond aptly, doesn’t mean He’s not present and available. 

In our finite minds, we can become lost in the fake news of thinking we’re in control of things. We are not in control. God is faithful and trustworthy and longs for us to run to Him for wisdom, advice and insight. Yes, sadly, we will run to our devices for the news of the day before Him.

So, as this day begins, please know that the sovereign God of the universe rules over all things. Not only does he care for the birds of the field, but for EACH one of us. His love for you is incomprehensible. Won't you run to Him?

“The heart of man plans his ways, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9

“O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.” 2 Chronicles 20:6

Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain for the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.