insights from a high schooler

This fall I was substitute teaching for a science teacher at a private school in Columbia, SC. I looked over at the board at the end of class and was astounded at the wisdom I saw in the frustrations of a high-school junior.

This statement is a true picture of our society and the world which we live in; where people are satisfied with the status quo, the short standard, and normality. Where people are living for happiness’ sake, to obtain what they can, to build mansions, to store treasure, and to maximize their pleasure. The people in our world have a lack of purpose; if you don’t believe me, ask yourself why suicide is becoming the #1 cause of death around the world for people between 16-25 years old.
If all this life has to offer me are the things I can see and feel… I am ready for this life to be over. There has to be something more to live for than our normal lives, than amassing things. Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” So if all I have to live for is on earth, I am of all men to be most pitied.
There is a purpose much greater than yourself or anything you can imagine.
Jesus so clearly calls us out of the normal life, into a world where anything is possible with Jesus living in us. He calls us into a new life of being a radical, which comes from the Latin word meaning to get back to the root of things. Christ calls us to be radicals, not for the sake of rebelling, but to show a life worth living for a Greater purpose; rebels against religion, fighting for the sake of radical relationship with the Savior of the world.
Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we would walk in them.” In other words, God spent an eternity dreaming up an amazing life for you to live, better than you could ever imagine, more fulfilling than any other, if you are only ready to step out of the comfort of normalcy.
I am ready for something other than the “American dream”. God show me the life that you have been dreaming of for me to live so that You might get the glory.