A Reason to Create Memories
A Couple Short Stories, an Updated Series, And the Weekly Recap
Have you ever had an amazing event happen in your life, and it just slipped by—only to be forgotten later? Maybe there were important details you wanted to remember, but now you only have a vague sense that something cool happened.
Some years back, a friend gave me a word: write everything down that the Lord does. She pointed to the story of Joshua, when the Lord told him to set up stones in the Jordan River and on the river bank. That way, when the children walked by with their fathers and asked what those stones meant, the fathers could tell them the story of what God had done.
I think we need more of that today. We need more stories of the good things God has done in our lives being passed down. And it doesn’t even have to be passed down only within families. It needs to be shared with our communities and our country.
So I want to challenge and encourage you to write down what happens in your life. Write down your memories. Remember the good stories. Even write down the stories where you messed up—but learned a lesson that could help someone else.
A Struggle with AI
I like using AI.
I really do.
I like the speed it allows me to create and share my ideas.
But then it becomes a question: What’s mine that I created, and what did the AI create? Is it really my story or my art or my music, or do I now just become part of the thing that was created?
Do I become the idea generator and the visionary?
And AI becomes the tool that helps me achieve my vision?
But what does that look like to others?
Brian makes a lot — but is it really his?
And I’ve struggled with that.
I also struggled with something I heard in a video about people who submit books for publication after using AI. The concern was that they don’t truly know their book — their characters, their motivations, the reasons behind a character’s decisions — the way someone who wrote it by hand would. A publisher can quickly tell the difference.
That got me thinking about what I’ve used AI to help me write.
Do I know the reasons I chose something?
Do I know the purpose of a piece or why I had a character do something?
Can I even remember what I wrote?
Last week, someone asked me to explain Calvinism. It had been a little while since I’d written anything about Calvinism. Would I be able to remember? Would I need to look up what I wrote to explain it clearly?
And you know what? It ended up being reassuring.
I was able to clearly communicate the five points of Calvinism and explain how I believe it misses the gospel.
I had internally been afraid of what AI might be doing to my ability. But in that moment, it turned out to be okay.
(I’d recommend checking out my Guarding the Gospel from Calvinism series, by the way.)
In the end, if I’m going to use AI, I’ve got to remember a few things — maybe they’ll be helpful for you too.
Keep writing and creating. Don’t forget how to do the actual work yourself.
Use AI to help speed up your work. It’s okay to let it help you edit or strengthen areas where you’re weaker.
If you want to be an idea person, that’s okay. What if you end up creating something really great that you enjoy and others enjoy? It’s okay to share it. And what if what you created with your idea ends up helping someone because it became clearer than it might have if you had done it entirely on your own?
Practice remembering the details of what you create. That really just comes from spending time with your work. Something that is one-and-done will fade quickly. But if you revisit something multiple times, it will stick with you longer.
AI is getting better at what it does. This past week, Claude was able to have AI agents compile code on its own. The speed at which this is advancing is honestly unbelievable. So it’s worth learning how to use it.
And at the same time, we shouldn’t forget how to do human tasks, creative work, and idea work ourselves.
The Weekly Recap:
Guarding the Gospel from Calvinism
I finally finished bringing over my series on Calvinism to Substack. You might ask why I would want to spend time creating a series about guarding the Gospel and focusing on Calvinism, and I would question it myself. However, I have seen a rise in Calvinism over the past number of years, and specifically I’ve seen a rise in stealth Calvinism. I don’t think people really realize the dangers of Calvinism, and how it removes the good news from the Gospel. I hope this series will help you discern what’s really being said out there, prepare you to discuss, draw you closer to Jesus, and build your faith.
You can start from the beginning here with the Table of Contents.
This Week’s Wednesday Night Bible Study Recap
Short Stories:
Have you been afraid to write? To step out and do something? I hope this very short story encourages you.
I was somehow inspired by a simple phrase “once upon a time” which turned into “Once upon a thimble a giant stood.” And this is the short story about his adventure.
40+ Subscribers!
This week I hit 40+ Subscribers to my newsletter, Brian’s Notebook! I’m so grateful that you all have decided to subscribe to my newsletter. 40 people is more than a classroom, and I recognize the value of 40 real people showing up. So I want to say thank you! Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for reading. I really appreciate it!
I saw something this week about someone talking about when they knew they were a writer. It was when they started writing. But it went further for this person when they believed the things they had to say were important enough to write down to share with the world.
Although, I’m just a normal guy, I believe what the Lord has done in my life is valuable enough to share with other people, to encourage them, to help build them up, or just to bring a smile into their lives.
So I plan to keep on showing up, and sharing the real life stories, the lessons I’ve learned, and the random fun short creative stories.
If you’ve found these weekly newsletters valuable, I’d love for you to share Brian’s Notebook with someone else. I even have a custom domain now! :) Briansnotebook.com
Thanks again, everyone!
Jesus loves you! If you don’t know Him. Reach out to me. I’d love to talk to you about Him.