"9 years ago I died..." (hopelessness in our culture)
Sometimes when i'm having conversations with youth, i have to ponder what they are actually saying. One young girl, who shall remain nameless, confided in me, "9 years ago i died." I asked her why that is. She replied that 9 years ago, her step-father died and she has felt dead inside ever since. Unfortunately, this was not the first person to say that to me. Another girl said the same thing to me about when her grandpa died.
I guess, i don't really know how to respond to a statement like that. I've never experienced the feeling of deadness, nor can i even fathom how it feels. But i think my biggest struggle with these types of statements is: "once people are dead, how can they become alive again?" Only as i was typing out that question, did i even have the slightest inclination of how these youth can become alive again. I guess that has something to do with being born again (a term i prefer not to use, but will use in this context as meaning coming to know Christ and having a personal relationship with him).
This has become a big struggle of mine. The youth feel dead inside, and the only way to become alive again is to have Christ living in you. But how do you help someone understand that?
There is such a hopeless that encompasses these kids. Chantelle and I were talking about this exact thing on Thursday during pre-meeting. Youth(perhaps people in general) nowadays seem to be so hopeless, yet when you show them a way out, they say its too hard. Its like they are happy to be in the situation they are in, but at the same time they are miserable. They want out, but refuse to do anything to get themselves out of that situation. In our society of quick-fixes, working hard to deal with emotions or past harms seems to be out of the question. It's so much easier to turn to drugs, alcohol, sex, avoidance tactics, fighting or suicide etc. But nobody desires to put forth the effort to work out their problems...to talk with someone about them, or get the adequate help that is available for them.
Sometimes i see only one solution. It ain't couseling or some sort of government service, but its Jesus. I know a lot of people grip and groan when i mention Jesus, but i have to say that He is solution to all of life's problems. I can't say that he isn't big enough, cuz he is. I can't say that he doens't work, cuz he does (just in his own time and his own way). But nobody wants to try Him out. They would rather stay in their dark hole, and put up little curtains and frilly froo froo, than work hard to dig themselves out of the hole. I used to have this "course" that i offered to people, "The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, no pink frilly crap allowed." Basically, i would pour out the honest truth, not holding back anything. Sometimes it hurt people, although they got over it when they realized that i was right.
I guess i'm just frustrated cuz there are so many solutions to these problems, but people only want to have pity parties rather than work their buns off to get out the situation they are in. Sometimes this wears me down. There is a way to get out of the deadness. It begins with Jesus. If only people could see that.
**********
I mentioned this issue to Kailey last nite after writing this post. When I asked Kailey what she said that these people needed when they felt dead, she said without hesitation, "They need to be born again." A time of rebirth is needed. If they are dead, there is no reviving them, but rather Kailey suggested that these youth need to expeirience a time of growth in the womb ( a place of forming a new identity) and then go through the intense pain of labor in order to be born again. Kailey took out the religious connontations of what being born again meant, but had the same idea that Christians believe being born again should be. Perhaps that is the way to approach this idea with these non-Christian kids. You need to be rebirthed and then see if they would like to do that in the religious Christian sense of the word. Regardless of their responce, Kailey is right. The only way to not feel dead is to be born again.
I guess, i don't really know how to respond to a statement like that. I've never experienced the feeling of deadness, nor can i even fathom how it feels. But i think my biggest struggle with these types of statements is: "once people are dead, how can they become alive again?" Only as i was typing out that question, did i even have the slightest inclination of how these youth can become alive again. I guess that has something to do with being born again (a term i prefer not to use, but will use in this context as meaning coming to know Christ and having a personal relationship with him).
This has become a big struggle of mine. The youth feel dead inside, and the only way to become alive again is to have Christ living in you. But how do you help someone understand that?
There is such a hopeless that encompasses these kids. Chantelle and I were talking about this exact thing on Thursday during pre-meeting. Youth(perhaps people in general) nowadays seem to be so hopeless, yet when you show them a way out, they say its too hard. Its like they are happy to be in the situation they are in, but at the same time they are miserable. They want out, but refuse to do anything to get themselves out of that situation. In our society of quick-fixes, working hard to deal with emotions or past harms seems to be out of the question. It's so much easier to turn to drugs, alcohol, sex, avoidance tactics, fighting or suicide etc. But nobody desires to put forth the effort to work out their problems...to talk with someone about them, or get the adequate help that is available for them.
Sometimes i see only one solution. It ain't couseling or some sort of government service, but its Jesus. I know a lot of people grip and groan when i mention Jesus, but i have to say that He is solution to all of life's problems. I can't say that he isn't big enough, cuz he is. I can't say that he doens't work, cuz he does (just in his own time and his own way). But nobody wants to try Him out. They would rather stay in their dark hole, and put up little curtains and frilly froo froo, than work hard to dig themselves out of the hole. I used to have this "course" that i offered to people, "The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, no pink frilly crap allowed." Basically, i would pour out the honest truth, not holding back anything. Sometimes it hurt people, although they got over it when they realized that i was right.
I guess i'm just frustrated cuz there are so many solutions to these problems, but people only want to have pity parties rather than work their buns off to get out the situation they are in. Sometimes this wears me down. There is a way to get out of the deadness. It begins with Jesus. If only people could see that.
**********
I mentioned this issue to Kailey last nite after writing this post. When I asked Kailey what she said that these people needed when they felt dead, she said without hesitation, "They need to be born again." A time of rebirth is needed. If they are dead, there is no reviving them, but rather Kailey suggested that these youth need to expeirience a time of growth in the womb ( a place of forming a new identity) and then go through the intense pain of labor in order to be born again. Kailey took out the religious connontations of what being born again meant, but had the same idea that Christians believe being born again should be. Perhaps that is the way to approach this idea with these non-Christian kids. You need to be rebirthed and then see if they would like to do that in the religious Christian sense of the word. Regardless of their responce, Kailey is right. The only way to not feel dead is to be born again.
posted by AmanDan at 11:39 AM
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