As I have been watching the details about the Boston bombing suspects become public, I have been struck by how much their lives and story resemble(albeit in a very negative way) a successful youth ministry/mentoring story. Let me explain. All indications are that the older brother came to America as a pretty normal young man, a typical older teenager. Had friends, was very involved in an extracurricular activity (boxing), and was well liked by people. He was not a loner or a recluse at all. It was at some point in the last few years where all indications are that a older person(s), seemingly a person(s) of faith (Islam) took notice of the potential in this young man and decided to invest in his life.
I would bet that it was through the influence of this (these) person/people that the older brother became "radical" about his faith. They put him in touch with resources, teachings and others who shared these destructive beliefs and the older brother found a cause worth giving himself to, worth dying for, sadly worth killing others for.
By all indications the older brother then traveled overseas, on a "mission trip" if you will to receive training, meet with others who were radical about the cause and who had paid a price for their faith. He met with people who encouraged him, legitimized his growing beliefs and ideas, and trained him how to take it to the next level. He then came back to America a changed person, ready to face anything and living life with newfound purpose. When he returned he shared this overwhelming passion with the person he loved the most, his younger brother. He had great influence on his younger brother who by all accounts would do anything for his big brother and with the lack of a father's presence in their lives that influence carried a lot of weight. A whole lot of weight, enough weight that he would be willing to kill and maim others.
We all know how the rest of the story goes.
Their story sounds so familiar to me. In many ways it is what I have spent my life doing with others and what others did for me. Follow me through this:
1.When I was a sixteen year old, an older man in the Christian faith took an interest in me. I was just an average American teenager going about my life. He saw potential in me, and encouraged me in how I could live a radical life for Jesus Christ. He mentored me. I along with many volunteers did the same for plenty of young men in the last twenty three years in the ministries I oversaw.
2. We provided resources and training to help teenagers grow in this new faith. We introduced them to a whole new world that in many ways they didn't know existed.
3. When I was twenty I found a cause worth living for, worth dying for, and worth sharing with others. It was the gospel of Jesus Christ. I saw hundreds of teens wake up to that reality in their heart.
4. I took kids on mission trips where they encountered people who had suffered for the faith, lived in different conditions then they did, people and experiences that gave them a whole new way of seeing the world. They were forever changed.
5. When I got serious about my faith I wanted my younger brother to know it, I wanted him to see what I was seeing. I wanted him to join me. I've watched kids get serious about their faith and share it with passion to whomever would listen. They become radical about their faith and where willing to do whatever they could for others to know.
What am I trying to say? Lots. Ideas are powerful. Young people are moldable. Mentors can change the whole direction of a person's life. Young people will look for something worth giving their life to.
It is a stark reminder you and I can influence a life for good or for evil. I'm sure you knew all this already but we all need reminded.
Lets pray for the victims families, healing for shattered lives and bodies, that the young people in our culture would meet Jesus, and yes even for our enemies that the Prince of Peace would change their hearts.
The battle these days is for the youth and the culture.
I think that on one hand, younger people need people who will give them the independence to find their place and find their way, while also providing the guidance they need and I believe want.
I think that sometimes what matters is at least that they matter and they have an important part to play. Hopefully for God.
Posted by: Alexander Wilhelmsen | May 07, 2013 at 08:27 PM