My last two posts discussed the issue of legalizing marijuana. Keeping it illegal and deterring its use through the stigma and deterrent value of law makes sense, I argued, and the counter-arguments are really just a subterfuge that moves us away from the kind of culture a society that wishes to remain free needs.
This post will shift gears a bit and discuss how Christian parents can approach the issue with their teens. We must begin by assessing what it is that teens today face: ours is an
increasingly permissive society, in which children have more freedom, more free
time and more spending money, than just about any previous generation. Expectations have also risen, and so too has
the stress that accompanies often unrealistic expectations. So it comes as no
surprise to most parents that the temptation for teens to “self-medicate” with
alcohol and drugs has also increased.
Add peer-pressure to the mix, and it often seems inevitable that kids
today will succumb.
No young person starts down this road contemplating how,
somewhere in their futures, they will deal with the wreckage that results – the
broken relationships, broken promises and, far too often, broken lives. They assume somehow that they will just
“handle it.” But in over two decades as a prosecutor, I have seen on
thousands of occasions the fallout – material, physical and spiritual – of poor
choices on the lives of teens and young adults. These young people did not lack education. Schools have made valiant efforts to educate
kids as to the effect of drugs and alcohol, and their inherent dangers. But
despite knowing of these consequences, both legal and medical, far too many
young people – Christians included – persist in their self destructive behavior.
Lasting change – life-changing improvement – occurs when a person’s
internal worldview can be redirected. It is not enough to teach a child
to say “no” to a variety of temptations; instead, people must have a positive
worldview – a combination of good things in life – that they affirm. It is for
this reason that twelve-step, or other faith-based programs, find considerable
success, because the force driving the change is a new and better view of the
world. The old negative patterns –i.e. trying to say no to impulses which
eventually overwhelm them – are replaced by positive ones – saying yes to God
and increasing one’s commitment to living a better way.
Christianity has provided this better worldview for two
thousand years. It provides a cohesive way to view the world, and our place
in it. It provides the means to not only make sense of this bewildering set of
choices we call “life” but to form a relationship with the one who made us and
left us here. Today’s secular culture rejects this claim as primitive or
steeped in superstition; it throws up road blocks to religion in the public
square, seeking to replace traditional faith with "neutral" and
"enlightened' science. Sadly, it appears that many self-described
Christians have also adopted a worldly view, often times due to a lack of
Biblical literacy.
When I have discussed the problem of drugs and alcohol
with other parents, the response I usually get is that I am naïve to think that
we can “stop” kids from experimenting.
Try too hard, they say, and the kids will just rebel in college – and
essentially go off the “deep end.” Fear
tactics – which they assume is all Christianity can provide – simply “don’t
work.” But the message of Christianity is not fear-based. Yes, there is a Hell to which those who
reject God will eventually be relegated. But fear of this is not the core of
the Christian message. Far from it.
Instead, Christianity finds its grounding in a personal relationship
with a Being who, despite being incomprehensibly awe-inspiring, wants us to
approach him the way a child approaches his “daddy.” (Romans 8:15) He offers us restoration
from the brokenness of our earthly lives, a brokenness brought on by our
rebellion to his will. We learn to see
past the “hollow and deceptive” philosophy of a world un-tethered from its
Creator and set our minds on things above (Colossians 3) In short, we can find new life, as the old
ways pass from us and we are transformed by the renewal of our minds. (Romans 12)
Presenting a positive and workable worldview to our
young people is the paramount responsibility of every parent. Yes, temptation will remain, and kids – even
committed Christian children – will continue to succumb to temptation. But
perhaps by sensitizing teens to what temptation entails at a spiritual level,
they would not be so glib about ignoring the risks which already have been so
thoroughly presented to them. By
“spiritual”, I do not mean, as if often the case today, the feeling of
“closeness” to God that is uninformed by traditional religion. I am
instead referring to the spiritual realm, or in other words the reality
that exists beyond that which our senses can perceive. The apostle Paul
summarized this quite forcefully in his letter to the Ephesians, where in
Chapter 6 he warns them that our battle is not against human forces but against
powers of darkness and “spiritual forces of wickedness.” Elsewhere, the Bible warns us to “stay sober and alert” and says that
the devil is “prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)
In the Epistle of James, we are told to “resist the devil and he will take
flight.” (James 4:7) In the Gospels,
Jesus has a personal encounter with Satan, deals with lesser demons and talks
often of the consequences of sin as death and Hell. In short, the
Christian worldview sees temptation - including that from drugs and alcohol -
in a much different way than the secular world.
The short-term pleasure these substances promise can be balanced by an
awareness that they are in fact a tool used by a personal enemy, Satan, who has
us in his sights and will use what limited power he has to ensnare us.
Waging
spiritual war on drugs may sound trite.
Indeed, many people today are ready to throw in the towel and admit
defeat. But if the Bible is true, then a
spiritual war involving much more than simply drugs and alcohol is raging all
around us. These substances may not be the adversary’s greatest weapons, but
they’ve caused quite a bit of carnage, especially to the unsuspecting. It's
time to see them in their proper light.
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