You’re only human

What follows is an excerpt of a conversation I had with Kelly Kapic, Professor of Theological Studies at Covenant College. He is the author of the recent book, You’re Only Human, about “how your limits reflect God’s design and why that’s good news.”

Schuurman: Kelly, what were some of the motivations for you to write this book?

Kapic: Thanks for asking. While academics can find it odd to share personal matters, it’s often our own stories and interests that drive us to research. And that is certainly part of the story here.

For as long as I can remember I have wrestled almost daily with the questions at the heart of this book. Unwanted waves of guilt and shame would visit me most days with the accusatory question, “Why didn’t you do more today?”

As a theologian, I am not opposed to facing my guilt and repenting for ways I have hurt others, been hardened toward God, or mistreated his creation. Repentance is a gift. But this lingering accusation of “not doing enough” or not “being enough” sounded to me less like the God of the scriptures and more like Ben Franklin, who said, “Time is money.” The economic metaphor of efficiency and productivity had clearly formed me in ways I didn’t realize at the time.

Productivity and efficiency had become my highest values, and my research and reflection for this book reminded me that, while God values those things, they are certainly not his highest values. Love is! God has always been comfortable taking his time, delighting in process, slow growth, and development.

I have become convinced that our finitude – another way of saying ‘creatureliness’ – is a beautiful and practical gift. It is how God made us.

Schuurman: In what ways does technology (mis)shape our notion of creaturely limits?

Kapic: Our imaginations are deeply shaped by certain forms of contemporary technology, and this has drastic implications for our lives. Innovation and technology can be wonderful, but a good servant can easily become a terrible master. Problems begin in our imaginations and then distort our lives. For example, our imaginations are more shaped by the car, smartphone, and the “Cloud” nowadays than by the horse, the crop, or our elderly neighbor. The former set stresses speed, quick recharge and endless expansion, while the latter forces a slowness, recognizes seasonal differences and honors wisdom over mere information.

Our values, even in the Church, have been deeply reshaped. Good is equated with faster, stronger, more efficient, while slower, weaker, and inefficient are almost always seen as negative.

This is partly why, for example, when some families have their first child, they are surprised by feeling shame, insignificance and frustration at their newly encountered inefficiency – the baby is just so needy. We laugh with these folks (yes, babies are super needy!) and hope to point them to the goodness of seasons of slowness, learning afresh to value presence over productivity.

But receiving such wisdom isn’t easy when we judge everything and everyone else by their efficiency and productivity. This is a massive problem for us as individuals, communities, and whole societies.

Technology can wonderfully help connect us with others and it can do all kinds of stunningly good and God-honoring things, from medical advances to ambulances. We just need to be more aware of how we are being shaped, especially in terms of what a faithful day, week, or even life looks like. We are not machines and our lives are not simply to-do lists.

Schuurman: Thank you – we need voices like yours to remind us that “our limits reflect God’s design” and that “we are not machines.”