"To be or not to be— that is the question."
Or maybe it was the question.
Because in our time, there doesn’t feel like much of a choice.
Our only option is to be faster. Be smarter. Be healthier. Be more productive. We have to be influential and be iconic. We have to be team players. We have to be beautiful and be strong.
Oh yeah, and we’re supposed to be “ourselves”' too, so long as that 'self' is deemed publicly useful.
Henri Nouwen says, “We live in a world filled with voices that say you are no good, you are ugly, you are despicable, you are a nobody— unless you can demonstrate the opposite.”
So we spend all our time and energy and money trying to demonstrate the opposite. Maybe this next job, relationship, or AI tech stack will finally get us where we're yearning to be.
But something feels just off, doesn't it?
The pressure comes from both our internal and external worlds. With technology, automation, the internet, and now AI, our lives should be easier, right?
Applied to business, maybe these efficiencies are helpful.
Applied to humans, they’re exhausting. Isolating. Depressing.
The pressure and cultural unease we feel is a sign that how we’re living isn’t how we’re designed.
Jesus—not the version shaped by headlines, but the true Jesus revealed in the Bible—moved through the world with surprising peace. Could He offer us a different way to be human?
He doesn’t ask people to perform. He doesn’t require perfection, max efficiency, or a life free of mistakes. He doesn’t say, “Come to me once you’ve figured out your life."
He said something like this:
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live free and lightly. " (Matthew 11:28-30, The Message)
All who turn toward Jesus can find real rest—not just the most beautiful, powerful, productive, religious, or strong.
Maybe AI is different. Maybe—unlike the failed promises of the internet, cellphones, and social media connections––technology will finally make our lives easier. And maybe after the new job, new raise, new workout plan, or New Year’s resolution, we actually will be able to accomplish all we want, and won't have to prove ourselves again.
Though there’s also that old adage about the insanity of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Perhaps the 2,000-year-old story that has thrived through the endless rise and fall of empires, ideologies, and technologies—perhaps those words and person of Jesus has something to offer us about what it means to be human.