| Statistics: |
| • |
1 in 3 15-year old boys
has tried drugs. |
| • |
1 in 100 schoolchildren
aged between 11-15 has used heroin. |
| • |
24% of under-16’s
drank alcohol in the last week. |
| • |
Over 80% of 18-year old
girls and boys are worried about money. |
| • |
45% of teenage girls are
unhappy about the way they look. |
| • |
Between 1996-2000 2,236
people under the age of 25 took their
own life in England and Wales. Most
young people in such a position report
chronic problems of abuse, neglect and
low self-esteem. |
| • |
Calls from suicidal children to childline
have doubled in the last decade, increasing
from 346 in 1990-91 to 701 in 1998-99. |
Quotes:
‘Everyone
talks about sex. They ask if you’re
a virgin and they’ll judge you. I think
about 85% of them have actually had sex.’
: 15-year-old girl
‘It’s
something you do on a Friday night isn’t
it? You just drink and drink and drink until
you’re legless – wicked. I drink
to forget about everything.’
: 15-year-old boy.
‘Cannabis relaxes
you, it takes you out of yourself.’
: 15-year-old boy
‘You want to
look fashionable so that people don’t
think you’re a weirdo.’
: 13-year-old girl
‘I don’t
have a lot of self-esteem about the way I
look. I have got to just try and change the
way I think about myself, so I have joined
a gym.’
: 20-year-old girl
Bible: John 8:
1-11:
It was a seriously bad day. She’d been
caught sleeping with someone else’s
husband, and the religious police who’d
walked in on them hadn’t even given
her time to get dressed before they hauled
her in front of this really famous, respected,
holy teacher. She was nearly naked, dying
of embarrassment and guilt, and they were
asking his permission to stone her to death.
Jesus said something to them, and one by one
they walked away. Now it was just him and
her. Obviously this punishment was so bad
it had to be done in private. But the words,
when they finally came, blew her mind: ‘Has
no one condemned you?.. Then neither do I
condemn you…Go now and leave your life
of sin.’ (John 8:11)
Life can easily become one long list of pressures:
things you’re meant to do and things
you’re not meant to do but find yourself
doing anyway; things other people want you
to do; things you want to do but can’t
do. In the middle of all that, there’s
being a Christian – yet another pressure!
However, Jesus was about removing pressure,
not giving people more of it. Just when people
were about to crack, he would do or say something
which rolled away all the stress, guilt, fear
and heaviness. They would suddenly realise
there was help and hope; new life and possibilities;
forgiveness and a future. In a society where
there are ever-increasing opportunities for
young people, there are also ever increasing
pressures. How wan we help them see Jesus
and know that his ‘burden is light?’
Prayer ideas:
Bin it:
Find a different object to represent each
of the big pressures in your life at the moment.
(If you can’t do that, just write them
on bits of paper). Then find a bin. Take each
object, and as you throw it in the bin, hear
those words of Jesus: ‘I am not going
to accuse you.’ Remember you’re
forgiven; remember you’re free, and
ask him to roll away the stress.
Community Pressure Points:
Find out what the pressure points in your
community are. What things make life more
stressful? Work out what you can do to help
roll that stress away. Maybe you could pick
up litter in a local park or volunteer to
do some gardening/shopping for the elderly.
It may not be huge, but it may well transform
lives.
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Source acknowledgement:
Statistics and Quotes taken from:
The Burden of Youth Report:
by The Henley Centre, commissioned by The
Salvation Army in 2001.
Beyond
Belief? Barriers and Bridges to Faith Today:
Nick Spencer of The London Institute of
Contemporary Christianity.
The Profile
of Youth Workers 2003:
a private report by Alison Gelder and Philip
Escott, commissioned by Churches Together
in England Coordination group for Youth
Work. Copyright Churches Together in England
2003.
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