I woke up looking for God. I always look for Him in the mornings. Sometimes, however, He’s hard to find. Sometimes He hides.

I went through my morning routine. I made the coffee. Let the dogs out to pee.

I turned on the TV news.

The TV headlines are shocking. Mostly, about wars, rumors of war, and celebrity mating habits. The news anchor doesn’t smile as he recites talking points.

I feel sorry for Newsguy. Even HE looks sorry he has this job as he talks about the shootings in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Evergreen, Colorado; and the killing of Charlie Kirk in Utah.

I pour coffee. I go to my laptop. Time to do some writing. I have deadlines. Open web browser.

The computer is bombarding me with more news. I skim headlines.

Today’s headlines are nothing like the newspaper headlines of yore. They are click-baity, weirdly worded, as if their sole purpose is to get me to click and nothing more. As if the organization behind each headline doesn’t give a flying fig whether I read the actual story, as long as I click the title.

“Click me,” I hear the headline whispering. “Come on, handsome. You know you want to. Just click me. Me love you long time.”

Here are some actual headlines I read:

“7 Products I Stopped Buying Once I Realized They Were Silently Killing Me.”

“Study Shows Hugging Can Cause Cancer.”

“Pamela Anderson Speaks Out; She Has A Lot To Get Off Her Chest.”

That’s not to mention all the stories about AI. Robots, robots, robots. If ever there was a trending topic in the news world, it’s the rise of AI.

Humanoid robots with water powered muscles. Robot humanoids being developed to possibly become law-enforcement officers. Humanoid robots expected to be operating within most American homes by the year 2042.

In the same vein, there are throngs of articles about “smart glasses,” and all they can do, and all they WILL be able to do, and how someday most humans on the globe will be sophisticated smart-glass-wearing people who let their household humanoid robots do everything from cut the grass to follow them into their bathrooms to wipe their own noses.

Smart glasses, the headlines tell me, are all about AR (altered reality), which is widescale technological integration of digital content with the real world. AR. How inspiring.

So within the next decade, according to the headlines, we will all be lying on our sofas, blissed out, lost within a half-digital hallucinatory trip. Our children will grow up making swiping gestures in the air as though they are playing on giant invisible iPads.

I haven’t been awake for 30 minutes, and already I need an Alka Seltzer.

Namely, because I’m starting to feel like a stranger on this planet. A stranger in my own society. I want to weep. I want to cry. I want to tell my fellow humans to “Wake up!” I don’t understand where the future is leading us. And I don’t understand why everyone seems to WANT to go there.

Soon, I feel almost sick to my stomach. How did this happen to us? How did we become a race of tech-junkies who let AI do everything from read our news, to fight our wars?

What happened to our human spirit? What happened to our unique genius for creativity? Where are our Michelangelos and Monets?

How about our human capacity for kindness? Where’d that go? Where are the Ghandis, Saint Francises, Mother Teresas, and Fred Rogerses of our time? Have we let ourselves become so numbed by the opioids of technology that we have suffocated our saints?

And what about the lessons we were put on earth to learn individually? Lessons of compassion, forgiveness, bravery, and unconditional love? Will we ever find God in a world like this one? Do we even WANT to find Him? Or is “God” becoming a dirty word? Will our future’s children even be aware that there IS a God within the next 100 years? Will they even care, or will humanity be too smart for such archaic beliefs?

Then it hits me.

I quietly turn off my TV. I shut off my phone. I close my laptop screen.

And, just like that, I found God.