Scene: A figure is sitting in semi-darkness on a couch

Rhona Cathcart August 07, 2025 3 0

Playlists

Add to Favourites

Save for later

Listen to this daily worship

Colossians 3: 8-10 (NIVUK)

8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

A person is sitting on a couch staring at an iPad, scrolling and frowning. Every once in a while they mutter something angrily. Occasionally they type something and press ‘send’. Suddenly they wince. 

“Ow” (they rub their neck and move it gingerly, then look around, noticing how dark it is) “how long have I been… (checks time on phone beside them) five hours!” (They reach over and switch on a light, wincing again at the brightness) “Apparently time flies when the world is falling apart.”

[They get up and walk stiffly into the kitchen to make a cup of tea, still wincing and moving their neck awkwardly. They leave the i-Pad, but take the phone with them, scrolling as they wait for the kettle to boil] 

“Definitely time for a social media fast.” 

[The camera focuses on their fingers on the phone screen as it scrolls from “exercises for a stiff neck” to “tips for getting rid of ‘tech neck’’ to “have you got a dowager’s hump?” to “chiropractors in your area” to “cases of malpractice among chiropractors” to “malpractice levels in the NHS” to “misuse of government spending” to “amount each council spends on housing asylum seekers”. Throughout, the sound of the kettle furiously boiling gets louder. Absentmindedly, they reach over the kettle for a mug, and swear as a burst of steam hits their right arm]

[Still clutching the phone in their left hand, they run their right arm under the tap. They wince as the cold water hits the burn, and continue to move their neck. Meanwhile their left thumb continues to scroll through “treatment of steam burns” to “check your appliances for fire safety” to “record numbers of forest fires in the Highlands this year”]

(They swear again quietly).

 “Enough!” [They open a drawer put the phone inside and pull out a small green first aid kit and slam the drawer firmly shut.]

Prayer:

God of all that is good

All that is excellent and worthy of praise

Forgive us for how easily we are sucked into negative spirals

Choosing to fill our minds with idle outrage and anger 

rather than compassion and kindness and action. 

Unbend our stiff and stubborn necks and renew us in Christ’s image

Amen