The Cure They Don't Want You To Know About

Scripture: Psalm 119:99 – “I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your decrees are my meditation.” (NRSVUE)

Have you ever watched something that promised a miracle cure to all your problems? I saw an ad this week with an AI version of Anthony Hopkins telling me that all the problems of old age could be solved with one seven second trick that they didn’t want you to know about and that Elon Musk had the answer. That ad is ridiculous on so many levels, but it reminded me of the blunder of putting too much faith in technology and progress.

One of my favorite books is Countercultural by Gil Rendle. In it, he describes three cultural paradigms that are failing us: social justice, techno-utopianism, and atavism. I generally think social justice is a good thing, but when taken to extremes it can lead to puritanism and division. Atavism is the idea that nature falls into hierarchy where some people are just better than others and should be in charge. At its extremes, atavism falls into nationalism and racism. These extremes seem to be ripping our world apart. Therefore, the center is where we would all want to be.

But the center here is techno-utopianism. It is the idea that products, not people, are the solution to the world’s problems. The answers to climate change, poverty, dementia, obesity – they are just one patent away. But this hyper-consumerist attitude always falls short and seems to end up with a few people making a lot of money and a lot of problems being left unsolved.

With this in mind, I was taken aback by a “miracle cure” offered in Psalm 119, a very long poem about the importance of God’s law and commandments. At one point, the psalmist describes how adherence to the commandments can solve your problems. Loving the law can make you smarter than your enemies, your teachers, and the aged.

Sounds pretty good, right? But can it really change things or is just another techno-utopian miracle cure? I think it can be more, but only if we allow it to. We are so used to the hunt for a quick fix, that we often turn the Bible into one. Read this one verse that they don’t want you to know about for seven seconds and all your problems will be solved. The Bible doesn’t work like that. It is not simple and the more we want it to be, the more likely we are to fall short of God’s hopes for us. A deep reading of the Bible should lead to a richer understanding of God, one that requires commitment and sacrifice beyond mere words or identity markers.

Rendle argues that true faith moves past the categories of social justice, techno-utopianism, and atavism into something more, and that committing to that faith conflicts with the cultures around us. It is therefore countercultural. But is also the path of love that can transform the world.

So, I guess faith can be a miracle cure, but only if you understand that it is not a pill or a seven-second hack, but a deep, difficult, and sometimes boring way of life. But when you place love and faith above ease and impatience, you really can find a wisdom that surpasses all things.

Prayer: God, make me more holy and humble. Let me put my faith in you and not categories and quick fixes. Through you, all things are possible. Amen.

Image credit: Mohamed Hassan