Teenage Observations, Part 6: Hyper Spirituality

Teens love highly spiritualized things like prayer, but not if they involved discipline- like personal holiness.

Teens tend to be so open to spiritual things. The more spiritual that it seems= the more attracted they are to it, but if it involves anything physical, for the most part, they check out.

A typical post-modern teen’s perspective:

Prayer= good. Silent meditation= good. Anything candles= good. Angels= good. Talk of spirits or even ghosts= really good…etc…

But, raising your hands in worship to God= bad. Singing along with others in worship to Jesus= bad. Stepping out to help someone from a different social group= bad. Abstinence= bad. Abstaining from alcohol= bad…etc…

A chrisitan-cult called Gnosticism started shortly after the beginnings of Christianity. It taught that anything related to the spirit was good and anything related to the body was bad. They used this as an excuse for sinning. Any time a Gnostic would commit a carnal sin they would blame it on the evil body. They would say that their soul had been saved by Jesus, so it didn’t matter what their bodies did, leading to great complacencies in anything physical amongst the Gnostics.

Gnosticism, although not existing per say as an organized religion today, is alive and well in the Church and amongst our teens. This idea that anything we do that is spiritual is good and makes up for what we do that is physical, so it doesn’t matter what I do with my body.

Gnostics tend to ignore the fact that God made us as corporate beings of body, soul, and spirit and that God intended us to live being aware of our entire existence as body, soul, and spirit. They tend to ignore the fact that when Jesus returns, that all of His followers will be given resurrected bodies and that we won’t be some bodiless ghost wondering about throughout eternity.

We must encourage young people today to love God with their bodies, as well as their spirits.