Suicidal ...

 

According to a program on TV, here in the UK, about one in four young people have suicidal thoughts.

I ask myself why!

I don't claim to be an expert in any thing, or to have any answers, but it seems to me that young people today are facing more intense challenges and difficulties than previous generations.

The world is changing fast; and not for the better. This is not the same world of twenty or so years ago. The recent global pandemic has changed our way of living and our way of thinking.

Added to this, young people today are seeing life through the prism of social media.

A prism is a piece of glass or other transparent material cut with precise angles and plane faces, and when light goes in it is broken down into its constituent original colours. This means a white light becomes like a rainbow. I am sure you've seen it.

Likewise, young people today are influenced by social media, the Internet, celebrities' lifestyles, musical and fashion trends, and so on.

More so than any other previous generations. 

They see and read what others are saying and they believe that this is how they must also think.  To think differently risks making an individual an outcast, outmoded, non-fashionable, or an old-fogey even.

Youngsters are "told" what to think about various issues like the environment, politics, consumerism, veganism, world population, relationships, religion and various other topics that are aired in today's easily accessible communications networks.

Added to this, they face the additional pressures of being unsure about their future. There's too much negative news and they have doubts about their careers, well-being and even their very survival. 

The global economic situation and competition is such that many will not be able to achieve their full potential and do better than their parents. 

With computerisation, mechanisation and global commercialisation many will find it difficult gaining employment which will provide them with a home in which to raise a family. 

I read recently that many young people are suffering from depression as a result of the pandemic. Others are so concerned about the perceived real threat to the environment and the future of the planet that they truly believe the world will end within ten years or so. 

One young on TV, he was about 20 years of age, vowed never to get married or have children because the world will soon end anyway. He reminded me of a work colleague many years ago. He too was in his early twenties and was convinced that the world was over-populated. He was married and told me he had agreed with his wife not to have children and add to the world's problems. He was sure they would have a bad life. I never found out whether he ever had children or not. But had he done so, that man would have had grand-children by now.

With ever increasing secularism in a materialistic world it is no wonder that many people are losing hope and doubt their very existence.

Every generation has been through difficult times when the world seemed at its darkest. Yet somehow, we lived through it. At least most of us have. We struggled through somehow. No doubt there are many reasons and theories as to why and how we managed to get through the bad times to where we are now.

We owe it to the young of today, we have a duty to instil in them their lost hope. To teach them courage, perseverance, and most of all to focus on what is really important in life. 

"Keep your mind set on the things that are in Heaven, not on things here on earth." Colossians 3.