Posted October 02, 2026
One of the occupational hazards of my work is that I spend much of my day engaging with news and cultural issues, much of which is more discouraging than encouraging. Such “doomscrolling” is so common that it was one of the Oxford English Dictionary’s words of the year in 2020.
But constantly consuming bad news causes the amygdala in our brain to sense danger, alerting our hypothalamus to tell our sympathetic nervous system to activate our fight-or-flight response. This causes our body’s adrenal glands to release stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which contribute to high blood pressure and impair cognitive abilities such as concentration, decision-making, and emotional regulation.
This reaction reinforces negative thoughts and feelings, increases anxiety and depression, leads to mental fatigue, impairs concentration, and reduces productivity. Nausea, headaches, muscle tension, neck and shoulder pain, and difficulty sleeping often result as well.
In other words, doomscrolling is bad.
Now to the good news: I read an article recently in which therapists are recommending “bloomscrolling” as a counter to the bad news in the news. This means intentionally seeking out uplifting content online such as nature videos, heartwarming stories, and hobbies. This shifts our brain toward oxytocin and stable dopamine, hormones that are released in response to positive social interactions.
To this end, let’s look at a story that is encouraging me greatly these days.
Dr. Todd Johnson is co-director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and co-author of the World Christian Encyclopedia, an authoritative resource I use often. He recently gave an interview in which he discussed the surprising growth of Christianity in our time.
After spending a year on sabbatical traveling around the world, Dr. Johnson said, “It’s really a terrific time to be a Christian.” For example, he spent time in Albania, known historically as the most atheistic country in the world, where he met with 650 Christians from 150 countries. He said the experience reminded him of Revelation 7:9, where people from “all tribes and peoples and languages” gather in heaven for worship.
He noted that in 1900, 82 percent of all Christians were European. By the time he published the World Christian Encyclopedia, only 31 percent were European; 69 percent were African, Asian, Latin American, and Pacific Islander. He believes that by 2075, 83 percent of all Christians are going to be Asian and African.
As Dr. Johnson noted, the advance of the gospel is good news for all believers. He explained that when the Spirit moves in one part of the world, the global Christian community is affected because we are a global faith, each of us part of the larger body of Christ.
How can we be part of this advance today? We’ll close with seven practical responses, along with some of my favorite quotes for each. Perhaps one is especially God’s invitation to you today.
One: Seek to experience God every moment of every day. As Wendell Berry noted, “There are no unsacred places; only sacred places and desecrated places.”
Two: Trust him in the hard places. Edwin Louis Cole observed, “You don’t drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.” The motivational speaker Jesse Itzler has popularized the phrase, “You didn’t come this far only to come this far.”
Three: Bring temptation immediately to Jesus. John Piper warned: “Sin gets its power by persuading me to believe that I will be happier if I follow it. The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier.” But Jesus will give us his discernment and strength to defeat temptation if we will seek them from him (Hebrews 4:15–16).
Four: Trust your Father to do what is best. Chuck Swindoll is right:
We must cease striving and trust God to provide what he thinks is best and in whatever time he chooses to make it available. But this kind of trusting doesn’t come naturally. It’s a spiritual crisis of the will in which we must choose to exercise faith.
Five: Align your money with your faith. The writer Haruki Murakami suggested, “Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can’t buy.” The Norwegian writer Arne Garborg listed such “things”:
You can buy food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; soft beds, but not sleep; knowledge, but not intelligence; glitter, but not comfort; fun, but not pleasure; acquaintances, but not friendship; servants, but not faithfulness; grey hair, but not honor; quiet days, but not peace.
Six: Measure success by faithfulness. Robert Louis Stevenson suggested, “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.”
Seven: Most of all, submit your life to the living Lord Jesus so he can live in and through you. One of the most important paragraphs in one of the most important devotional books in Christian history is this statement in Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest:
The expression of Christian character is not good doing, but Godlikeness: If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit divine characteristics in your life, not good human characteristics. God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a Christian is that the supernatural is made natural in him by the grace of God, and the experience of this works out in the practical details of life (his emphasis).
The writer Ann Voskamp is right: “Our fall was, has always been, and always will be, that we aren’t satisfied in God and what he gives. We hunger for something more, something other.” This “hunger” is a “signal of transcendence,” an indication that we were made for more than this, that, as St. Augustine said, our hearts truly are restless until they rest in God.
How restless is your heart today?
“Just as love is a verb, so is faith.” —Nannie Helen Burroughs
The post Are you “doomscrolling” or “bloomscrolling”? appeared first on Denison Forum.
