Valentine's Day Bruhaha

Just last Saturday was Valentine's day and even though it was celebrated low-keyed (most likely due to the fact that our general presidential elections were supposed to hold on that day but then got postponed), people still went out and celebrated the holiday. Of course Val's day is associated with eros love - between a man and a woman, (even though the origin of the holiday has nothing to do with that kind of love and so there is the giving of lots of flowers and chocolate and deflowering too in many quarters). Christian organizations and churches also use it as an opportunity to teach the truth about love and its true origin, God. This post is prompted by a picture of a young lady's dressing that I saw on Facebook that made me exclaim, Ahhh!

The picture is in no way lewd or sexually provocative, but then it revealed some unpleasant truths about this lady and many other young girls in this society of ours. Let me endeavour to describe what she wore that caused so much outrage. Here she was, standing infront of a popular shopping mall in Ibadan with a white t-shirt and black trousers. On the t-shirt is written:

Feb 14, I love f-ing you Ayomide.

I was shocked and speechless for about 10 seconds. What would make a girl be so bold as to blatantly express the fact that she was sexually active (outside wedlock) and would say it so shamelessly and vulgarly like that? A comment written by someone showed that this was the result of the influence of today's music videos, which encourage sexual promiscuity and lewdness without shame.

It is untrained or not properly trained children that turn out to become rude, shameless or morally inept adults. I like to say that children don't just turn out wrong; they are a product of irresponsible parenting or absent parents. Children are like sponges and will become whatsoever is predominant in their environment. The bible rightly points out that if you condition a child in a particular pattern, when he is old, he wont depart from that godly path. However what we have today is the influence and power of media utilized by the devil to disciple today's youth and make them godless and shameless in perpetuating evil. Do you think the release of a depraved portrayal of sex in 50 Shades of Grey on Valentine's day is coincidental? It is targeted at giving young people options to the "boring" no-sex-till-marriage mantra of "those boring christians." While growing up in my own teenage years, you don't just wear a t-shirt because it was beautiful or watch a movie because it was popular. You considered whatever was written on it and the possible content. Not so these days.

My discourse today is not to reminisce about my growing years but to point out the fact that many of us, who are spiritually mature have not done a good job at mentoring the younger generation. What we have not realized is that the dynamics of mentoring (discipleship) have changed. Nowadays if you don't understand technology and the dynamics of the language of today's youth, you are bound to sound like a boring record, playing some old forgotten tune.

We must understand their language. We must leverage the use of media. We must teach the upcoming generation the truths that the media clutter of today wants to hide. We must not keep our mouths shut and just speak down at them telling them how inept and morally bankrupt they are. We must show them that life is much more than making money and living a hip life. We must demonstrate faithfulness, sexual purity, a passionate pursuit of God that translates into a life that is vibrant and abundant just as Jesus mentioned in John 10:10. This is a call to people in my age bracket who got born again in the early to mid 90s. Let's stop pursuing the good life (the money, cars, etc) and let's do what God asked us to do. We owe this generation a debt; showing them who God is. If not we risk having a generation that will raise our own children and turn them over to the devil.

It is because of this burden that R.A.M.P.A.G.E. Outreach was born; basically to sensitize believers to their role in shaping society using arts and entertainment. We can make a difference simply because we are anointed to heal that sector.