This world, therefore, because it is weird, will always fascinate us. (And fascination in this case will be Jedi-ic). Mostly, this eventually becomes our "wonder-zone" - which each one of us is in possession of - a place in one's mind where they tend to stagger between wonder and disgust, or both. To some it may be positive, while to others it may be negative, but we all have one. This is because we are all able to see the world in our own different ways and are able to cook our own mind-meals and feed on them...
With the basics on mind-works above - which are actually mere blubbery - I want to share a few things that my mind has been brooding over in the past few days of my idleness. (Yeah guys, we were chased away from school, and what do old men life myself do when they're deliberately chased from school? They study. And they write. They do this affectionately. But they also hang around and study people - thanks to my introverted-extrovert temperament.)
So while I have been seated on some podium and wittily gazing and analysing the trends in the world below, and as my mind has been excusing me to do whatever I want with whatever passes through it, I present to you the first part of its collection of moments (mostly with a group of young people in an age bracket of 16 and 35 involved). This is what I have come to conclude;
I have realized the following during my interaction with young people my age:
We joke more than we should, talk more than we should (me included), dump more junk into our minds and bodies than we are allowed to (by any law in Heaven or on earth), hate more than we are allowed to, judge and condemn more than we are supposed to, pray less, worship less, read less of God's Word (but more of useless things), skip church more, skip all stuff to do with God and give more excuses than are necessary, fall in love deeper than we should, chat more than we should, listen to, read and watch funny stuff more than we are allowed to...
We are mere extremists that never take life seriously, and more-so, the things that involve God. We take most things for granted including our jobs and education) and expect rewards for our pettiness. It doesn't work that way.
How will anyone believe that we have any chance of changing this world, leave alone our own lives/selves if this is the approach we have to life?
2. Many young Christians feel that secularism today is "normal" and "cool"
In the past few days of my idleness, I have opted to make tiny spontaneous surveys on what people think about certain trends in the present world. They mostly involved young saved people like me. My observations have yielded the following;
(a) Observation: Most young Christians trash almost 80% of all the advice given to them by the elderly concerning matters of service to God, employment, finances, love, commitment, romance and sexuality. Reason? They think they are smart, or rather, "we think we are smarter than they are" and that the secular way of looking at all of the issues mentioned above is "more exciting" than the Christian way taught to us by our leaders and parents/guardians. But, are we really smart? Smart enough to put to dust all the advice they give us?
Possible solution: We need to learn that we are not always right - in fact, it almost always. Older people have seen more than we have and have been in the same places and situations we are facing. Taking into consideration whatever they are telling us is not only wise, but valuable in raising us up as rational young adults and reasonable citizens.
(b) Observation: Most young Christians prefer "to play cool" with matters about broadcasting (or telling others) about what they believe - and worse still, their friends. My research reveals that around 70% of young saved people don't love to share (or don't ever dare to share) their faith with their friends. A whopping 80% never talk about God or religion on social media i.e. Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Google+ for fear of being tagged "cherchy", or it may be because we are entirely ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or that we don't even know who we believe in and why; if not, they may only share such things on Sunday morning and that is all. This is tragic, right? We are more to the cold side of Christianity than we are to the hot side. Tragic indeed.
Possible solution: We need to get ourselves together and observe our inclinations and priorities as far as our spirituality is concerned: If we wannabes be Christians, then let's be Christians all the way; and if we wanna be secular, then let's go secular all the way. There ain't no middle ground yo! Why keep tarnishing the brand and faith that is Christianity with petty behaviour and foolishness? Why not just remain on one side and spare the rest of us the grins and grinds of being lukewarm?
(c) Observation: A good number of young saved people hate controversy, and they therefore prefer to only talk about the "light or less important issues of society" and leave out the more intricate ones. Talk about real issues in society and you are likely to receive no comment(s) at all from such guys. They are average people who'd rather die in agony and suffering than shout out that something is wrong somewhere with our government, systems or management.
Possible solution: For a very long time, Christians have been marked as "mild, stupid, unintelligent, frail and wimpy". Yes, for a very long time. That needs to change. We need to become more aggressive, bolder, more demanding as far as our rights and the rights of others are concerned and more passionate as far as what is right/good is concerned. Christ was neither wimpy nor a sycophant, but He was humble. There is a difference between the two: humility and sycophancy. We need to mark that difference and work on it.
(d) Observation: 60% of young saved people with phones, tablets, laptops, desktops and media-capable gadgets have secular music and pornographic material in/on those gadgets, and they don't feel guilty about it. We have been watered-down by a creepy Gospel that says, "Jesus walked among them and ate with them... so let us do the same..." But did Jesus really indulge in the sins of those around Him in order to win them to Himself? No. So why all this secularism in order to fit in? Huh?
Possible solution: Stop hiding in false interpretations of Scripture on dressing code/style, food (alcohol, drugs and smoking), music, entertainment and general Christian behavior. We should also stop formulating our own laws to justify our sins! Sin is just sin; nothing less, and nothing more.
(e) Observation: 50% of the young people I interviewed (in an underground manner) preferred "fitting in" to "standing out" while tackling various life issues requiring a bold Christian stand. They insisted on following what they are told by friends, parents, guardians, teachers but never laying down their own path that defines who they truly are. They prefer following what people think they are and lose all identity of who they truly are. They rant most about things that go wrong but never offer help or advice. They correct and/or rebuke no-one (everything seems to be okay to/with them), and would rather have their friends fall away than correct them in the fear of losing them.
Possible solution: We change nothing by "fitting in" and "being cool". It only loses us into a charade of what others think we should be and lose the whole identity of who we truly are. We should stand-out and become the definition of our own brands: the people we would love others to point at and say, "Yeah, that is him/her! That is how they do their thang!"
(f) Observation: 40% of the young people I interacted with have never committed themselves to any task nor have they ever been held responsible for any activity right from birth up to the age of 18 (and some beyond). They stated that they've not been believed to be able to handle any small tasks in their homes or schools (either by their parents or friends) and have altogether come to fear commitment and responsibility as far as life and church matters are concerned.
Possible solution: We become lazier and less productive when we only follow others and what they do. We need to rise up and be followed! We need to start asking ourselves, "When will someone follow me? When will people start believing that I am now reliable and can handle certain tasks?" Yes, we should ask ourselves such questions! Paul once said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:12 (NASB) "Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example to those who believe" and in Titus 2:7 (NASB) "In all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us..." Strive to show yourself worthy to be followed!
(g) Observation: Most of the young people I met are never forgiving when they see their own weaknesses in others, but can judge and step on others on the account of the very wrongs that are very familiar in their own worlds.
Possible solution: No one is perfect. We are not perfect. So stop whining about someone's wrongs as if you don't have your own. Stop thinking that you are God. Stop judging others the only way God can. That is how the secular world behaves: an eye for an eye, a wrong for a wrong and a judgement for a judgement. Scripture says this; Luke 6:42 (ESV) "How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye", then John 8:7 (ESV) says, "And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her...'"
3. Mommy's kids and daddy's dolls are the most difficult people to deal with.
I did not only make/do Christian-based research and observations. No. I dug deeper. And after digging deeper, I realized that it requires more and more grace to sit around and deal with daddy's or mommy's kids and tolerate their behaviour.
You know them: spoilt kids with tottering manners, money guzzling tendencies and funny appetites. Woe to you if you get into a relationship, into a deal or happen to get married to one (I am one of them anyway, but not all that spoilt - or so I think. :-))
There is only one possible way of dealing with us: avoid us or get used to us. (Some of us are not that difficult to handle anyway... :-))
4. Most young saved people (around 80%) lose their faith either in their second semester of joining college/campus or in the first semester of their sophomore year.
This is mostly influenced by secular trends and a fall into partying, drugs and sexual sin - accelerated by a hip-and-bone closeness to the wrong kind of friends. Deny it or not, campus changes people: for better or for worse. Most lose their values, dignity and virginity during this phase, while others pass through this stage miraculously unharmed.
My research followed through several cases under my leadership and premised that the most affected and most vulnerable are those who once-upon-a-time belonged to single sex High Schools. Campus somehow just derails them (not all of them, but some): all the freedom, the cross-cultural hyperbola brought in by a new environment, the excitement to try out on the "new unknown stuff" campus freely offers, the exposure to contradicting worldviews about God, the idea of wanting to fit in and not "being/becoming the odd one out", the lack of godliness in about 90% of the people they meet on campus - all these cause a weak mind and heart to change ground as far as God is concerned, for say, 2 years, until they regain consciousness in the last part of their third year or the first part of their fourth year in campus.
I am still trying to find answers to this dilemma and may come up with a few possible solutions after getting a reliable conclusion and workable recommendations.
5. People mostly do stuff in order to please others
If I were to ask you, how many times in a day you are self-driven, what answer would you give me? Can you positively enumerate the number of times you wake up because you want to, go to school/work because you feel that it is important, do those assignments or meet datelines because you know that that is the best thing to do? How many times do you do things willingly and without being begged, pulled, pushed or forced? Just a few, right?
Beginning with myself, I realized that I actually hate school: many hear me proclaim at the top of my lungs that I could (anytime) pay someone to attend classes on my behalf, do my assignments and sit my examinations - that is if it was not against the law. I am rarely self-motivated as far as school is concerned. But I always wonder: who am I doing it for? Who is paying my fees? Who am I trying to please by attending classes and doing all those weird practicals? (I always know that I am the weirdest scientist on all the earth. Yes, I am.) The answer is: I do it all by and for myself.
On the other hand, when it comes to ministry and personal stuff, I can sit down working out on a solution or writing things, or singing or drafting things or meeting my own datelines right until three in the morning. It scares me sometimes, but I have gotten used to it. That is just me: working late to meet personal datelines but throwing away books because they bore me...
My observations pointed out that if we only work harder in order to please our leaders, friends and family members, (or even ourselves), then we are not yet motivated enough. If we only work for the money or the fame, or for maintenance of status within society, then we still are not motivated enough. We need to work and strive for something more, something higher. We need to go to school because it is the right thing to do and go to work because we love doing it, because we are passionate about it, because we want to change the world... By doing this, we will forge less sick-sheets and pull out less lies to lecturers as to why we couldn't be in for their practicals. Yeah, you hear me now...
I'll be back with Part 2, and with an altogether new range of musings and observations...
Bonface Morris.
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