Teens: Fearful, Stressed, and Over 90% Lost

I'm preparing the Bible study for our Sunday night youth event.  The theme is "fear."  So as I research, I run across this statement:

Teenagers today are the most unreached people for Christ in the nation. Less than 10 percent of America's youths have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. (BuildingChurchLeaders.com)

That's shocking, sobering, and heartbreaking.  Out of 10 teens, on average only one of them knows Jesus.  This group of people who are at a point in their lives when they are making choices that will influence the course of their lives, who are forming the values that will shape their attitudes, their marriages, their parenting, their happiness... they are doing all of this without the benefit of God's grace, wisdom, truth, and guidance.

And as I read on, I see that they have some very real and legitimate fears they are wrestling with:

They fear that they will never have a happy marriage and family.  They want to find that person with whom they can spend a lifetime, but they don't see much reason for hope around them.

They fear that they will be a victim of violent crime.  Seeing the threats of terrorism, the closeness of gang violence, the reports of shootings even in high schools and on college campuses, and the many scenarios of violence portrayed on TV, they see violence as inescapable.

They fear that they will never achieve financial security.  The high unemployment rate, the college graduates who cannot get a job, reports on the quality of public education and the escalating cost of higher education, the highly competitive college application process and job market... all of these make them wonder if financial independence -- much less prosperity -- is something within their reach.

They fear rejection and loneliness.  "Will I be accepted?  Will I be loved?"  Many teenage girls question, "Will I have to have sex to be accepted?"  ...which, to me, is equivalent to "Can I only be accepted on the basis of providing sexual services?"  No wonder provocative clothing and obsession over body image is so prevalent among teens today.

We shouldn't be surprised that another study (here) finds that anxiety and stress-related disorders spike in these years.  And living in chronic fear as a teenager can result in someone living the rest of their lives as fearful adults.

And, all the while, we as God's people have help for these teens.  We have answers to these questions.  God provides us with the promises needed to live in a dangerous world, with the wisdom to make wise choices among so many options, with the assurance that He's working out His plan for us.  We have a faith to offer than can overcome their fears.  But we're not getting the job done.  Just 3 miles from our church's building is a high school full of hundreds of the most unreached people in our nation who are dealing with some of the most life-changing questions they will ever face.

Jeremiah looked at the terrible spiritual condition of his people, and the potential blessings that were waiting for them.  He compared it to everyone being sick in a place (Gilead) where healing medicine was readily available, and he wrote (Jeremiah 8:21-22):

     I hurt with the hurt of my people.
         I mourn and am overcome with grief.
     Is there no medicine in Gilead?
         Is there no physician there?
     Why is there no healing
         for the wounds of my people?

Are there no answers for the teenagers of Wallace?  Is there no light for their darkness?  Is there no guidance to remedy their lostness and searching?  There most certainly is.  It's found in Christ -- His love and grace, His acceptance and purpose, His truth and peace.

Lord, set us on fire with a passion to share the healing medicine of Christ with the hurting teenagers all around us.