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The Best Things in Life
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Archie the Bible Basher Some young people’s attitude to Catholics is that we don’t have a handle on real life. Our life, they think is controlled by thoughts of ” pie in the sky when we die” and nothing to do with “ real life, here and now.” When I was growing up there was very little to challenge the way I was taught to see the world. At home, at school and in the parish there was a consistent message. But what happens with the young people that I’m in contact with is very different. At school we promote a culture of care and co-operation. But at home, on the media, today’s culture is firmly based on competition. It’s everywhere the young people turn. Listen to our political and business leaders “It’s a hard scary world since 9/11”. “The market takes no prisoners”. To be modern and up to date is to shape your life with a spirituality of competition and survival of the fittest attitude. Now I think that this is a very real problem. When we talk about youth evangelisation, we need to approach it very wisely. We can only influence children that are exposed to a spirituality of compassion and co-operation. Without exposure to the Gospel our children have no alternative but to live the way the world does, to live out a spirituality of competition, even in their relationships. A spirituality of relationships Most of the young people I talk to are looking for two basic things out of life, a) some sense of security and b) that their lives might have meaning or success. If I say to the young men who would you like to be? By a mile, it’s David Beckham and for the young girls, Victoria Beckham. When I ask why? There’s a very interesting answer. The money and fame are all part of it, but right at the heart of their replies is “It looks like they really like and care for each other”. It is the relationship that they have that’s so attractive. A relationship of love and forgiveness. We teach that it is in caring relationships that you can qualitatively taste how good life is. The psychologist Eriksson states that in his opinion, “ The most profound and influential thing that we can do for our children is to teach them the value of creative relationships, how to make and keep good and honest relationships, because the quality of their life, from when they’re 25 until the day they die can be measured by the quality of their relationships”. At the heart of what every young person wants is, caring, loving relationships. Is it possible or is it a foolish dream? We can say to young people that, at the heart of the Gospel is a recipe for successful relationships. Your relationship to God, your relationship with other people and your relationship to yourself. When we approach the best things in life this way, young people are often very open to listen. They then ask the question, “Is that why you promise to be married to one person? Oh, I get it now. It’s to protect the beauty of the relationship”. Others say “Archie, get a life. It’s not like that in the real world”. I say to them, “I hear what you’re saying, but for me as a Christian man, relationships are the real world. This is where I live, how I live, this is how I love. In and through relationships and in and through the things that help relationships be good and happy. How to protect the good things in life. My daughter Julia who is the deputy head of a Catholic Primary School tells this story. When they have parties, most of the children will fill their mouths with chocolate buttons and then carry on trying to get more and more into an already filled mouth. They just love the pleasure of the present moment. Is there anything wrong with that? No. It’s a wonderful God given gift to be able to enjoy pleasurable things. But there is also the subtle truth that if they eat
too many sweets, the sweets become carriers of an upset tummy and
bring discomfort and not pleasure. This truth about sweets carries
over to many areas of adult life. The same principle applies to how
we use money, sex and power.Within safe parameters sex, money and
power can bring happiness and care into the world. If they are entered
into without care; however these everyday things can bring hurt rather
than happiness and disease rather than health. We are so special. And so is everyone else! The most sensible thing we can do as Christian men and women is to work for the well being of all God’s children. The desire for universal peace and happiness is in us all. Where does it come from? What’s it for? We need to introduce young people to the Scriptures at a very early age and to tell them that this dream that they have too comes from the heart of God. This is my mission statement. This is what Yahweh asks of you (Archie) only this, for you to be happy today and for the people around you to be happy today, simply act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:6). From every page of the Scriptures I’m asked to invite young people to be men and women of love whose understanding is that life is a gift from God to be enjoyed. That God created the universe in love and God keeps everything in creative love and everything God wants to do is creative. Every day when I see a young person turn from selfishness to generosity, I rejoice. When I see a young person choose not to bully some body weaker, I rejoice. When I see them making friends and meaning that they’re making friends I rejoice. The opportunities to see goodness working everyday in our world are immense. There’s a wonderful book by Scott-Peck in which he states, “Everybody has a religion”. That’s basically how they think life works and if you’ve got a young person in your heart that you want to talk to about God, find out the God they believe in. Find out how they think the world works. That can be the beginning from which you start and You should always respect that. You always respect where people start but you can say to them, there is another way of reflecting on the wonder of life. We must encourage young people that God is the God who loves life, and that the best things in life are those things, which make relationships creative and useful. Encourage your children. John Wimber used to say, “if you want something to die, don’t feed it, if you want something to live feed it regularly”. How good would that be if we stopped feeding criticism, if we stopped majoring on the things people particularly young people do wrong. Let’s become Christians who share with each other, how fantastic life is. It’s a wonderful, precious, beautiful gift, meant to give us pleasure and joy, that needs to be protected and lived well. May I say to you that most young people we talk to like this become lovers of God. Do they all go to Church? No. However I do believe that it helps them choose to be good friends, committed parents and committed citizens and co-creators with God. It helps them to make choices that help sexual and social equality, racial and religious reconciliation. In our family we have exposed our children to the faith and spirituality of Jesus. Did that guarantee that they would to do the same thing as us? No. Every one of our children, however said their yes to God, not to my wife Cathy and I. They don’t have a second hand religion, It is the God of Jesus who has called them, and it’s the God of Jesus that they have chosen to give their lives to. It is the same God calling them that called Jesus, It’s fantastic God is calling us all to enjoy the wonderful gift of life, and to an experience of universal peace, and solidarity.
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I’m
the chaplain in a school in Liverpool and I would like to share my
approach to speaking to the young adults about Jesus. I believe everyday
life can be very good when we turn to the wisdom of the Scriptures
as the recipe for a good and happy adult life.