I use AI as part of my writing process.

That may sound strange to some, disappointing to others, and perhaps entirely ordinary to many. We are living through another technological turn, and like every turn before it, it raises real questions. What do we gain? What do we lose? What happens to the human voice when new tools enter the room?

Those are questions worth asking.

For me, AI is not the author of this blog. It does not replace thought, experience, faith, doubt, grief, prayer, conviction, or the slow work of becoming human. It does not live my life, wrestle with God in my place, love my family, carry my regrets, or hope for grace.

But it can help me think more clearly.

I use AI the way some writers use an editor, a conversation partner, a thesaurus, a notebook, a sermon discussion, a writing group, or a very patient friend who is willing to help me untangle a sentence that has become too crowded. Sometimes it helps me organize scattered thoughts. Sometimes it helps me see where an idea needs more clarity. Sometimes it helps me find a better structure, a stronger title, or a more accessible way of saying something I already believe but have not yet found the words for.

The voice and the soul, however, remain mine.

The stories are mine. The questions are mine. The convictions are mine. The hesitations are mine. The spiritual wrestling is mine. The final responsibility for what appears here is mine.

I understand why some people are cautious. Every new tool can be misused. Technology can make us lazy. It can tempt us to produce more while feeling less, to sound polished without being truthful, to create content without communion. Those dangers are real.

But tools have always shaped the way we write.

The printing press changed how ideas travelled. Typewriters changed the rhythm of composition. Word processors changed how easily we revise. Search engines changed how quickly we gather information. Spellcheck quietly corrected words we once had to catch ourselves. None of these tools removed the human heart from writing. They simply changed the room in which the writer worked.

AI is now part of that room.

So I choose to use it carefully, honestly, and gratefully—not as a substitute for my voice, but as a tool that helps me refine it; not as a shortcut around the work, but sometimes as a companion through the work; not to make my writing less human, but to help me say more clearly what is deeply human. Yes, in some ways I’m still experimenting, and along the way I find ways of using it that I like and ways that I don’t. I’ll probably make mistakes and misuse it along the way. This is part of the process.

This blog is still a place of faith, doubt, reflection, grace, and the beautiful mess of everyday life.