¶ … Jesus
Any glancing inquiry into today's youth culture will demonstrate the need for a spiritual revival amongst our youth. The elder generations of this environment have led many of our precious youth astray by providing sinful examples of living and ignoring the higher calling of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The purpose of this report is to describe my personal observations of teenagers interacting in a secular environment. The observations from this experiment are used to incorporate an idea of how the youth culture reacts and is imbedded within the cultural influences that are very pervasive in our world. To accomplish this mission, I chose a local pizza shop, located three blocks away from a large city high school. My first observation was done at lunch time around 11 am until 1 pm on a Wednesday afternoon. I returned that Friday for my second observation. This spot was chosen due to the secular nature of food and lunch and that it is a good opportunity to witness unsupervised teenagers in their natural environment.
Observations And Lessons Learned
The most striking conclusions that I reached while observing nearly 50 different teenagers at the pizza shop was that they are truly lost in this world. These youths have very little respect for manners. There is a spiritual sickness that dwells inside these people as they ignore the basic human dignities of life in many different ways.
The dress that these teenagers choose to wear signifies that sex and drugs are very important to them....
Many of the females dress extremely sexual with much skin and cleavage exposed. To my surprise, the young boys seem almost disaffected by such overt sexuality. Many of the clothing worn by the teenagers have bold messages stamped across the fabric. These messages are very derogatory, dark natured and intimidating in many cases.
The use of phones and technology by these young students demonstrates a reliance on this method of communication. Nearly every teenager I observed had at least checked their phone during their time spent at the pizza shop. There is an addictive nature about the way that these young people use their phones, and if the right messages were being displayed on their phones, it may be used for positive purposes.
The young people were generally, loud, brash and insensitive to others at the pizza shop, especially those working there. A sense of entitlement has immersed these youngsters into thinking that being rude is cool and trendy. This brashness and exclusionary approach towards life demonstrates a deep rooted fear and a lack of spiritual guidance. These youth are vulnerable to the many influences that are around them at all times.
After observing this location for nearly four hours on two different occasions, I feel that God is calling out to these young people by showing them how not to act and how the Lord does not want them to behave. Jesus' journey was filled with ups and downs, and we should not expect others not to fail and to sin. Sin is necessary for redemption. The fields…
