Are you a Breadcrumb Prayer? Are you orbiting God? (Aug 2026)
What might breadcrumbing mean in this context? I think Gen Z might be better informed because this is their language.
Breadcrumbing is occasional, meaningless messaging to pretend to be interested without commitment.
That’s the best definition this 58-year-old man can manage. Don’t laugh. I am trying.
Listening to Christians in theological conversation, it often becomes apparent that people might use the same words, but understand their meaning very differently. A prayer could be the noun for the communication with God. Or the noun for the person doing it. That’s an easy one.
Conversation and confusion can last a while without different definitions and contexts becoming evident. This can result in irritation, frustration and lack of empathy. Often division. With the right attitude, dialogue can become helpful and informative for both.
That’s English. That’s before we include the language and context of ancient biblical manuscripts.
The picture above is what Artificial Intelligence made from some language from this post. The sequence of red images could also be described as breadcrumbing.
I found much of Shakespeare inaccessible as a teenager. Now it’s Gen Z slang and language I struggle with. I’ve undertaken research and offer some translation definitions that might help us older folk understand a tad more from Gen Z.
Many modern words have developed from words we might know. However, they are often shortened and redefined for a social media context. Some make it into respected English dictionaries.
I’ll play chalkboard teacher…
To communicate, there are always more words, phrases and emoji to learn.
What do many of these have in common?
Do these words describe our relationship with God?
Is our relationship with God real and relevant, or artificial, phoney and shallow.
Is our prayer; occasional, meaningless messaging, to pretend to be interested?
Do we lack integrity and commitment?
Do we want to connect, listen and learn?
Or are we just getting it off our chest?
My proverb couplet in opposite/contrasting style of Hebrew parallelism.
Words said by the mouth can be loud, distracting, and mindless.
Prayer led by the heart can quietly, build relationship and meaning.
The talk of a good person is rich fare for many,
but chatterboxes die of an empty heart.
(Proverbs 10:21 MSG)