32 unread messages. Jozef put down the phone, frustrated. How would he get through the next few days? Looking for answers, or distraction, he picked up the phone and started watching videos. One video caught Jozef’s eye. A remarkable individual, talking about something religious or spiritual. He couldn’t quite make it out, but he was interested and found something impressive, maybe admirable, about the person. So, Jozef continued watching and . . . .
Scrolled through this person’s feed. He noticed how they didn’t start every video with the classic clickbaiting opener that everyone uses, but they had this unusual calmness about them, it drew him in. It really contrasted with the stress of the messages waiting for him just a scroll away.
They always sat in the same spot, on a window seat with the sun streaming in, and they were reading a book, a fabric bound floral book, with well worn pages littered with different coloured tabs. They were always reading from the book, it reminded Jozef of childhood evenings when his mother would read to him stories of heroic battles, magical schools, mythical creatures and friendship. Those days felt pretty distant from his life now. Working in Canary Wharf at BP, he had made it, used his degree and every summer internship and was now living the life he had been planning since sixth form. And yet, here he was, on a Tuesday evening, in his flat, alone, doom scrolling and ignoring his mates messages once again. He glanced back at his phone, the person had placed the book down and was speaking to the audience, to him. They were talking about the story they had just read, how this guy Gideon was talking to God, oh God, they must be reading from the Bible. Jozef had gone to a CofE primary, he knew the Bible, he had seen the videos of American preachers shouting and heckling people, he knew Christians. But this person wasn’t shouting, or talking about any of the topics Jozef normally saw Christians talking about, they were just chatting, like they would to a friend, about this guy Gideon and how he was feeling insecure, and God encouraged him.
Jozef thought to himself how he wouldn’t mind someone in his corner, bigging him up when he felt insecure. He thought on his day, how he wouldn’t have minded being called a ‘mighty warrior’ before his performance review, when his boss really teared into him and his lack of initiative. The person continued to talk about Gideon, God and how they had felt like Gideon in their life. Somehow it felt like the person was talking directly to Jozef, not like a video of thousands of people’s fyps but just for him. This story of Gideon really sounded like Jozef, he had been questioning if there was more to life than meetings, and like the person said, He wondered if there could be someone, like a god or something, that could pull him out of his rut and send him to what he was meant to do.
This story was submitted as part of the King’s Study Phase of the Gen Z Role Models Project. Added April 2026.
“Scrolled through this person’s feed.” (S199) © 2026 by The Gen Z Role Models Project is licensed under CC BY 4.0
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