Fake and Artificial
We are an artificial society. Not only do we pretend in our relationships, always putting on our Sunday best to hide our flaws, we see artificial things all around us. Think about that little ceramic dish on most restaurant tables. What does it contain? Various colored packets of artificial sweeteners, all intended to replace sugar. Before pictures were on driver’s licenses, many young people had fake identification cards, so I’m told, hoping to be allowed to buy or consume alcohol before they reached the legal drinking age. The science of artificial intelligence has grown exponentially as computers are now capable of performing complex tasks that once required human (natural) intelligence to perform. And these days we seemingly have two kinds of news – real and fake.
Have you heard of meat analogue? It is just a fancy name for meat substitutes (fake meat) made from plants. To be transparent, due to my cancer, I am finding myself eating more of these plant-based products, and I do find many of them quite delicious.
So, what is artificial? It can be best defined something like this – made to imitate what is natural; actions or attitudes that are insincere and disingenuous. While artificial is not always bad, it is usually marketed as “better than the original.” Rarely though is artificial better than what is natural, genuine, or original. Easier maybe, but rarely better. More visually appealing, possibly, but better, that is debatable.
Not only do we live in an artificial society, we are sometimes artificial people. It is human nature to want to look good to those around us. While we once only saw ourselves briefly in the mirror, while brushing our teeth or washing our hands, we now stare at ourselves for hours on end while in virtual meetings, and based upon the boom in cosmetic surgeries, many people do not like who they see. Somehow, looking better is equated with feeling better. Usually however just an artificial and temporary feeling better because nothing of substance has really changed.
[Cosmetic surgery, focused solely on enhancing appearance, is vastly different from plastic surgery that focuses on repairing dysfunction or reconstructing defects caused by birth disorders, trauma, burns, or disease. Cosmetic surgery is simply for aesthetic purposes while plastic surgery is reconstructive in nature.]
We are artificial in that our outward appearance doesn’t always line up with our inner reality. Think back to when you asked someone out on a date for the first time. Did you “say and do all the right things,” even artificial things, in order to get that person to say yes? Just look on social media. By what gets posted, everyone’s life appears to always be better than yours. You can wash your clothes, hang them over the line to air dry, but if you put them back on over your dirty body, they don’t stay clean for very long.
While we can often easily clean ourselves up on the outside, we cannot, due to our sinful nature, on our own, clean ourselves up on inside. Only God can do that. (Click here to read more.) We can play a part in cleaning ourselves up by the choices we make, but the power to change comes only from having a relationship with God. King David knew this to be true. After his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and his ordering the murder of her husband was exposed by a prophet name Nathan, here is what David cried out, found in Psalm 51:10 – “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me.”
Today, are you desiring to stop being artificial? If so, like King David, cry out to God, asking for a clean heart, one that leads to a right spirit in you. There is nothing fake or artificial about that!