08/21/2026
WHAT IF RETURNING TO THE DESIGN DOESN'T MEAN GOING BACKWARD?
I've been thinking about something.
If human beings spent most of our history living much closer to nature—moving our bodies, gathering food, living in community, depending on one another—does my idea of returning to God's Design mean we should all abandon modern life and become hunter-gatherers again?
Obviously not.
And that made me realize something important about the Five D's.
Design isn't a period in history.
It's a reference point.
I don't believe God created us with the intention that human beings would never invent anything, build cities, practice medicine, create businesses or develop technology.
We were made to learn.
To create.
To cultivate.
To solve problems.
To build.
The question isn't whether we've advanced.
The question is whether everything we've built is still serving the human being it was created to serve.
Think about it.
We invented transportation so we wouldn't have to walk everywhere.
That's good.
But now many of us hardly move.
We created an industrial food system so food could be abundant and convenient.
That's good.
But somewhere along the way, convenience often became more important than nourishment.
We created smartphones to connect us.
That's incredible.
But how many times have you seen a family sitting together while everyone is staring at a different screen?
We developed technology to save time.
Yet somehow everybody seems to have less of it.
And now we're creating artificial intelligence capable of writing, researching, planning, teaching, creating and even helping us think.
Again, I don't think that's necessarily bad.
I use AI.
But here's the question I've started asking:
Is the tool increasing my ability to be human—or slowly replacing it?
That question changes how I understand the Five D's.
DESIGN
Design isn't about living like our ancestors.
It's understanding the conditions under which human beings flourish.
Movement.
Real food.
Nature.
Relationships.
Community.
Purpose.
Challenge.
Creativity.
Rest.
Gratitude.
Faith.
Love.
Stewardship.
DRIFT
Drift happens when we gradually move away from those things.
Usually we don't even notice it happening.
And often the very things causing the Drift originally made life better.
DEPENDENCY
Eventually convenience becomes something we can't imagine living without.
The car.
The processed food.
The medication.
The phone.
The algorithm.
Maybe soon, AI.
The tool that once served us can slowly become something we serve.
DISRUPTION
Eventually something tells us we're off course.
Our health.
Our relationships.
Our finances.
Our attention.
Our anxiety.
Our loneliness.
Our environment.
Our sense that despite having more convenience than almost any humans who ever lived...
something still doesn't feel right.
And then comes DELIVERANCE.
This is the part I've been thinking about differently.
Deliverance doesn't mean going backward.
It means returning to alignment.
Imagine a ship that's been pushed twenty miles off course.
The captain doesn't sail all the way back to the harbor where the journey started.
He checks his position.
Finds the proper heading.
Corrects course.
And keeps moving forward.
Maybe that's what humanity needs to do.
We don't need to abandon technology.
We need technology that serves the Design.
Use the car—but walk.
Use the grocery store—but grow something.
Use modern medicine—but take responsibility for the body you've been given.
Use the smartphone—but put it down and talk to the person sitting beside you.
Use AI—but don't surrender your ability to think.
Build businesses—but remember what the money is supposed to provide.
Create incredible technology—but don't forget the human being the technology was supposed to serve.
Maybe progress isn't the problem.
Progress without alignment is.
And perhaps Deliverance isn't about returning humanity to some romantic version of the past.
It's about carrying the wisdom of the original Design forward.
That may become especially important as AI changes our world.
Because for the first time, we've created a tool that doesn't just extend our muscles, transportation or access to information.
It can begin extending—and potentially replacing—parts of our thinking.
So I think one question is going to become increasingly important:
Does this technology help me think better... or am I asking it to think for me?
Those are two very different futures.
One could free us from meaningless work and give us more time for family, community, creativity, nature, purpose and God.
The other could make us more comfortable, more entertained, more dependent...
and less capable.
I don't believe the answer is rejecting the future.
I think it's learning how to enter it without losing ourselves.
Design isn't somewhere behind us.
It's the compass that tells us whether we're still heading in the right direction.
And Deliverance isn't going backward.
It's returning to alignment with the Design—and then continuing forward.
Maybe that's what becoming Fixed by Nature really means.
Not escaping the modern world.
Learning how to live in it without allowing it to pull us away from the things we were created to be.
So here's the question I've been asking myself:
What part of modern life genuinely helps you live better—and what part do you think we've allowed to take us too far from the Design?
