I think we live in a time when we are desperately looking for hope and not finding it

​Friday I had the opportunity to spend a few hours talking with a group of teens about youth substance use. The group was invested in learning how to help their peers.

One question I asked them was - why do your friends and peers use substances?

The answer our young people give to that question has changed drastically over the years. It used to be "they are bored" or "they are looking for a good time" or "they just want to fit in."

Today's answers, no matter where I go, are always in line with what these kids told me:

They told me their friends use because they are stressed, depressed, sad, lonely - those were their answers. We were several answers deep before these young people ever got to the old "good time" responses I used to get.

Those answers aren't hard to believe. A recent Virginia survey asked high school students across the state if they had felt so sad or hopeless every day for two consecutive weeks at any point the past year, and as a result had to quit doing their normal activities.

Nearly 40% of girls said they had.

20% of boys said they had (we've trained boys to be too tough - big boys don't cry - to admit they are sad, so they are always less inclined to admit they feel sad or hopeless).

20% of girls on that survey said they seriously considered suicide last year - 10% of boys did.

That is a lot of young people feeling sad and hopeless. Add that to the post I shared last week that talked about the unprecedented suicide and opiate overdose epidemics going on in this country - and one could speculate sad and hopeless kids are going on to be even sadder and more hopeless adults.

I don't know. I think we live in a time when we are desperately looking for hope and not finding it. I've been there. In fact, there are many days I'm still prone to finding myself there. On those days, though, I realize I am looking for hope outside of myself. Looking for it in my job, in my hobbies, in my relationships, in my dreams.

As a Christian during this Christmas time, I've spent time reflecting on this reality: Christ came, was born in a manger, died for me, and then - THEN - he built a new home IN me.

So often at Christmas we celebrate the life of Christ through symbols: stars, lights, trees, presents, mangers, wise men, a cross, a grave. I think too often we look at those things in remembrance of and gratitude for what Christ did, and not in hopeful and joyous celebration of what HE IS DOING today.

Today he is alive and living inside me. He is my constant source of hope. He is my constant reminder that when I feel sad, and there are days I do, that the answer is to turn inside and not search more frantically outside and all around me for my hope.

Christ was born in a manger on Christmas day. But on this Christmas I'm not celebrating that he WAS born - but that he IS alive and well in me.

I believe strongly that's a peace we can all find.

And in that peace, we can find the capacity to love ourselves a bit more, and in the process find a greater love for those around us who are truly sad and hopeless.