If she gets her homework done, shows respect to her friends and teachers, and keeps catastrophes to a minimum throughout the week, my daughter and I will sometimes play video games during the weekend. And no one would ever label me a “Gamer” unless that game is pick-up basketball, Spikeball, Ultimate Frisbee, or something else involving a ball rather than a handheld controller. All of these new gaming consoles have way too many buttons and most of the time I can’t even figure out how to turn them on!

And I still prefer the “old-school” games that I used to play in my blonde bowl-cut phase circa 1993, so I recently introduced my daughter to Sonic the Hedgehog. Speedy blue insectivores with cool red shoes are timeless, and I can usually handle a 2-dimensional game with 2 buttons, both of which make you jump!

And although these Sega Genesis games are pretty fun, there is one aspect of the Sonic series that is pure, diabolical evil: the fact that Sonic can’t breathe underwater. And every child who has ever played these games certainly has some degree of PTSD from the “Drown Countdown” music…I would have to turn off the volume when I was a kid when playing an aquatic level because the musical shift from lighthearted adventure to imminent death was WAY too much to handle!

But I think the incessant barrage of information available to us on social media puts us in a similarly stressed-out state. The problems in our nation and the issues of random people on Instagram seem to become personal as we Doomscroll…we either experience angst osmosis or feel burdened to “fix” problems out of our control. And the music shifts from thankfulness to a Drowning Countdown of anxiety and panic!

So unplug. Turn off the volume. Go on airplane mode. Strap on your red sneakers and run unencumbered through life, trusting that God will provide. Because the likelihood of you actually drowning is about as likely as a blue hedgehog actually saving the world from an egg-shaped villain

Philippians 4:6-7