Posted tagged ‘mental-health’

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Scrolling Down

May 3, 2026

      “Now if we died to Christ, we believe we will also live with him…For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:8, 14)

Scrolling is this thing these days. People scroll through their phones to find relevance, meaning, and something that raises eyebrows. 

Driving my two oldest grandkids around could be described as a conversation punctuated with bouts of scrolling. I’ll be having a conversation with one of them about the importance of being grounded in the faith, and suddenly, a seizure of scrolling invades our space. 

Scrolling to find out which of their friends has posted a selfie that does not have any beneficial value to society as a whole or any individual purpose. Scrolling as a new form of twitching. Scrolling as a way to avoid having a mundane moment. Scrolling is the younger generation’s version of daydreaming— a spontaneous moment of withdrawal. Be a senior citizen among three young scrollers, and you may begin to question your value.

Of course, I realize that a few readers of this blog scrolled down to it! The “whiner” about scrolling isn’t helping his case. I’m also guilty of scrolling down the programming guide on TV to see what’s on. If I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have found out about the recent Outhouse Sledding Championships on ESPN. (Yes, that’s a real event!)

Truth be known, I’ve encountered scrolling in another way, a more humbling way. I’m now having to do a lot of “age-scrolling.” That is, I’m filling in information on my cell phone or laptop for a new physician, specialist, driver’s license renewal, insurance information, school certification renewal, workshop sign-up…need I go on! And when I’m asked my age, I have to scroll down…and down…and down. The longer I scroll down, the closer to the deathly bottom I get. The year 2000 disappears from the screen as I continue to go down. My first child’s birth year, 1981, rises past me, and there goes my high school graduation, 1972) and I’m still sinking deeper. Scrolling down is a way of putting me in my place— close to the end of the road— and reminding me of the fact that most people are above me…scrolling-wise.

My scrolls are clarifications of my mortality. It’s the harsh truth of our deteriorating bodies. My prescription bottles, aching hips, and suspect hearing are also teammates of the downward scrolling to my demise.

I take comfort in the hope of Romans 6, where Paul says, “Now if we died to Christ, we believe we will also live with him…For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:8,14)

When one of my students or athletes…or even one of my granddaughters reminds me of how old I am, I am now prone to reply, “Yes, only by the grace of God am I still scrolling down.” Confusion surfaces on their faces. 

I just smile. 

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Use Words

April 1, 2026

“Laziness brings on deep sleep, and the shiftless go hungry.” (Proverbs 19:15)

Convenience is a big deal these days. Although my memory is suspect, I can’t think of a single invention in the past umpteen decades meant to slow the process of making, creating, or cooking something. By necessity, the latest-and-greatest has to be quick and painless, or it will be a bust.

How do you determine what is convenient versus what is laziness? That’s a toughie! I like my air fryer and microwave that cut cooking times dramatically. More than that, I like being able to buy an already-cooked meal at the store and heating it up for a minute. Is that convenience or laziness? Yes!

In recent times, with artificial intelligence, shortened to AI, so it doesn’t tax a person’s busy schedule or pronunciation deficiencies, the time it takes for a less-than-motivated student (who wants to get back to his video games) to write a school essay has dramatically dropped. He doesn’t even have to use words. AI does the “wording” for him.

A close friend of mine hates it when he sends a three-paragraph text filled with deep thoughts and compliments, only to get a thumbs-up emoji. I have to admit that I sometimes respond by sending him three to four emojis lined up in a row, just to irritate him (in a friendly way). His beef: Is it that hard to use words?

My beef: No wonder people can’t spell these days. Letters that form words are like a foreign language. For some people, it’s like learning Latin…and when you see how they spell words, you feel like you ARE reading Latin.

Laziness brings on future issues. In every area of our lives, there are fundamentals to learn. Like brushing my teeth so that some day in the future I don’t look like a cartoon character; or learning to add so I don’t stand before the register person at McDonald’s looking like a doofus because I couldn’t figure out that a Big Mac Meal plus a six-piece McNuggets cost more than the ten-dollar bill I’m holding. When you skip by the fundamentals and go directly to a nondescript thumbs-up emoji, you expose yourself to the crimes of apathy, sloth, and idiocy.

Bottom line: We tend to be in a hurry to avoid responsibilities and in no hurry to fulfill important courtesies. Can I get a thumbs-up followed by clapping hands?

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Scapegoats and Sacrifices

July 7, 2024

“When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat.  He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins— The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness. (Leviticus 16:20-22)

Scapegoats are biblical. They fulfilled a purpose. Someone or something had to take the blame for the bad judgments of the Israelites. In certain situations, individuals would take the punishment, but there were corporate sins and rebellious attitudes that cast a dark cloud over the whole nation. Enter the scapegoat, a goat that everyone could visibly identify as being “the one.” He took the blame so they didn’t have to. I suppose for a short time, the guilty felt unburdened and free. The scapegoat whio had become the focus of their problems had taken away their problems.

Of course, the problems would re-emerge after a while and the people would have to look for another scapegoat to take the blame.

Our culture has brought back the custom of scapegoats. From Steve Bartram’s interference with a foul ball that could probably given the Chicago Cubs Game 6 in the National League playoff series and taken them into the World Series, to who to blame for high inflation, to who caused the test scores of students to drop, we’re a society that looks for that one person or group of people to take the blame.

Of course, the blame game gets ramped up during political campaign season. In a recent Colorado congressional race, you would have thought each of the candidates from the same political party were the Devil Incarnate.

In Old Testament times, the scapegoat was taken away from the people and into the desert. He was left there, the carrier who took responsibility for the people’s sins.

When Jesus carried his cross to the place of the Skull, our sins were upon Him. He took them to the cross with Him. As Isaiah 53:6 tells us, “…and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” He carried our sins once and for all.

Unlike the scapegoat led out into the desert, Jesus had a choice about being the carrier of our sins, and He chose to take them with Him. As I said at the beginning, scapegoats are biblical. They are also relevant for life today. When something goes wrong, we look for someone to blame.

Jesus, who had no sin, took the blame for my failures. Romans 5:7-8 sum it up:

“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

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