Wednesday 15 August 2007

Peer Pressure

Cheshire Chief Constable Peter Fahy spoke about the alcohol related problems that led to the death of Gary Newloves. He decries the alcohol culture of young people and how this leads to anti-social behaviour. He proposes more expensive alcohol, more restraints on the sale and consumption of alcohol.

As a nation we are being changed by circumstances. While some of the suggestions sound very sensible and the call for a national debate is wholly to be welcomed, in that debate some difficult questions need to be asked.

Why is it that our young people go out and get drunk. I was discussing this with my wife. What is it that makes people follow their peer group and what is it that makes them rebel against it.

I was talking about how on alcohol and other matters I rebelled against peer pressure and how can I teach my children to do so, and why did I?

We have a tendency to want to please the people that are important to us. That is what drives children to drink, they want to be seen as someone. They want to be accepted by their peer group.

Why then did I not?

One answer is thatI did. I wanted to be admired by the people who were important to me. The question is who was important to me.

Of course, I could say that God was important to me, and that would be very true. I read the Bible regularly and in that and in prayer I met with God. It was about a personal encounter with the divine who loved me and understood me in a way no one else every could or ever would.

I was accepted, I was forgiven, I was loved. That gives us an incredible freedom, and the power to walk away when everyone else says go.

However, if I was going to say the people who matters to me who I wanted to please it was not those my age at school. I belonged to a loving Christian community who I wanted to please.

Now of course they never saw what went on when I was out with my friends, but they had the Holy Spirit, and I wanted God's blessing on my life. I knew that if I wanted God's blessing then I was not going to get it by doing the things that displeased Him.

When tempted to walk away I thought where do I want to be, where do I want to go. I met wonderful older people who were more alive not just to God but to life, than many of my contemporaries. I met few others who really drew me.

You want to please who you love. If we love God we want to please Him. However the church has a really important role to play as well if we love and we respect each other we can provide tangible encouragement to people not by moaning or decrying but just by loving people and believing the best - by being grace in action.

Perhaps what people need most is people to love them and believe in them, and then they will respond to the power of love, rather than the pressures of the world. The problem is that we need the power of God if we are going to be really effective in standing against the pressures. Of course our love can point people to that source, can point people to God.