Scrolling or Kneeling

“Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” —Jeremiah 6:16

Social media fragments the soul with noise and illusion, while the humble church gathers it back with physical presence, reverence, and grace. —D.

Scrolling through social media is like wandering a wasteland of shattered mirrors. Each shard reflects distortion, not truth. A fragmented humanity clamors for notice with pictures, reels, takes, slogans. Each one crying, “Look at me!” But there’s nothing to hold, nothing that roots or nourishes. The scroll turns what’s sacred in us into flickering shadows, thin and frantic. What was made to connect us now scatters us, leaving us hungry and disoriented, chasing the mirage of belonging but never arriving.

Now step through the worn door of a small, local church. Listen to the hinges groan. Listen the floorboards creak. The air carries the faint scent of beeswax and old wood. Here, beauty is not curated or branded. It is humble. The pews are worn smooth by aching backs. Sunlight filters through glass colored with sacred stories. A paschal flame flickers before the altar like a heartbeat. No algorithm tries to hold your gaze. No feed refreshes. Nothing flashes. And yet, your soul stirs. This beauty does not demand. It invites. It doesn’t deplete. It restores. You breathe. You remember. You are remembered.

Social media fills the mind and hollows the heart. The church, by contrast, empties the mind and fills the soul with physical presence, reverence, and grace. It draws you out of pretense and noise and returns you to your deepest hunger: Christ Himself. The world offers illusions of connection. The church offers communion in flesh and blood, kneeling and rising, voices joined in prayer. One leads you into endless wandering. The other brings you home.