On a recent Sunday in our Sunday school class, our leader mentioning going to the local school board meeting. He told us about a conversation he had with one student.  The student revealed how many students were contemplating suicide.  That  comment struck me at a deep place in my heart.  I raised my hand and said it make me sad to think the condition of a large number of students in our school system has deteriorated to such a desperate state.  The blame rests with my generation. Instead of complaining about the condition of our youth, we need to share the “Good News” of Jesus with them.    

As I look back during the late 1940’s and 50’s, when I was growing up,  suicide was never on the minds of my buddies.  But today we have an environment in which fragile, insecure and deeply lonely students think about ending their lives.  This is black mark on our culture!    Research paints a picture of young students alone, despairing  and feeling hopeless.  As a nation we struggle with how to address this condition.

I was reminded of a passage in Amos, which I have been wanted to include in my blog.  This discuss regarding teen suicide in America gives me the opportunity to share the words of  prophet Amos.  “‘The time is surely coming,’ says the Sovereign Lord, ‘when I will send a famine on the land – not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the Lord.  People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from border to border searching for the word of the Lord. but they will not find it.  Beautiful girls and strong young men will grow faint in that day.'” (Amos 8:11-13).  

What can we learn from these words of the prophet.  First, the warning  of what could happen in our day.  We need to pay heed to our moral and spiritual condition.  If we neglect nurturing young people by not sharing Jesus, who is the “bread of life” we will have to face the consequences of starving young people,  who hunger for real  food.  Secondly, God will bring about a famine.  There is  plenty of physical bread and water, but little guidance in helping young people to find the “bread of life” and “living water.” They will experience spiritual famine, as they wander in a modern spiritual waste land.  

Thirdly, we will see young people “staggering” and “wandering” all across our nation searching for a clear word from God, in whose image they were created.  I picture a whole generation being influenced by those we call “influencers” in the social media.  The conflicting messages  only distort reality and cause the young to live in an illusionary world – hunger and dissatisfied.  

Fourthly, there is a desperate search for some grasp of transcendence and heavenly voice. saying “you are loved.”  But as the prophet warned, “they will not find it.”  Like students in my local school system, kids live in a self contained bubble that is suffocating their sense of being.  They really are crying out, but not finding what they really are looking for in our culture.

Finally these are some of the brightest and best.  Amos warns us, “Beautiful girls and strong young men will grow faint in that day.”  In other words, normal, healthy, young people will end up having thoughts of taking their own life.  

Ecclesiastes gives this advice, “Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator.  Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, ‘Life is not pleasant anymore.'” (Eccl. 12:1).

I read an informative review of a book for men entitled, “Fighting Shadows: Overcoming 7 lies that keep men from becoming fully alive.”  I was intrigued with the premise of the book.  “There’s a shadow that’s settled over the hearts of men today.  Masculinity is in crisis.  Critiques about the dangers of toxic masculinity and the abuses of patriarchal systems have grown louder than ever.  The very notions of masculinity and manhood are under attack.  In response to cultural shifts, some have doubled down on old stereotypes in ways that just add to the conflict and confusion.” As a result many men are confused and in the dark about manhood.

When did talk about masculinity became controversial it is hard to pinpoint ?  Certainly in the last decade,  men have moved into the darkness and shadows regarding their maleness.  Using metaphors such as “fighting shadows” and being “shadow men” gives the impression that men are confused about modern masculinity.  The authors Jefferson Bethke and Jon Tyson talk about the dark places as shadows in the lives of men.  They list lust, worldly ambition, loneliness, shame, apathy and despair.  

The book looks at external explanations for the crisis of masculinity.  “Men face problems because they believe cultural lies.”  The authors blame the shadowy lies on sin and Satan.  But they are also critical of the church.  “Unfortunately, much of what is taught at church about masculinity is so theoretical that it doesn’t seem to work in real life.  In the absence of effective mentors and models, not to mention the lack of margin to really work on ourselves, we just drift to the edge – out of the light.” 

While it is helpful to be aware of how the lies of our secular culture keeps men in the shadows, we need to be careful not to point the finger away from our responsibility before the Lord.  Men, indeed, feel beaten up by a hostile culture.  They need support and especially affirmation as men.  To help them interpret the negative message they are continually facing in the culture,  men will need help in being a godly man in a hostile culture.  The authors maintain, “the greatest problem facing men today isn’t our culture or the church; it’s our need for repentance and submission to Christ. What’s wrong with the world is also what’s wrong inside each of us.”

Richard Rohr is known for accusing men of “shadow boxing”  He observes, “It takes so much energy and effort to suppress what we find unacceptable in ourselves that we can have very little energy left for anything else.”  We end up shadow boxing when we place “a great portion of our unacceptable self in exile.”    

It takes courage for a man to face his real self, and not be afraid of those misconceptions of maleness internalized by the culture.  Rohr gives this warning, “We need to acknowledge, forgive, and heal all that lurks in our shadow, or we will continue to distort reality by projecting all that we hate from within ourselves onto other people and the world around us.”

In our day there is a need for men to be gathering in support groups so as to help one another with how we distort reality by avoiding the unacceptable parts of our story.  AA as a saying that speaks to this condition: “You are only as sick as your secrets.” A lot of the male influencers in the media have become well versed in projecting their shadows on younger, unsuspecting men, who are struggling with their shadow.  We need what Rohr calls, “male mothers.”  These are older mentor who can name the shadow-boxing taking place.