Turning a New Leaf

The young man came to me spontaneously, and asked me where the Father was, and when I told him that I was the one, he was a bit surprised, but after a few seconds introduced himself, how he reached this alcoholics/drug-addicts rehabilitation center. Hailing from one of the Seven Sisters in the North Eastern India, he had been addicted to alcohol and drugs for the past eight years. For a 23 year old man, eight years of life with alcohol and drugs is not a short period, but when he decided to try this rehabilitation center, just outside the City of Joy, I suppose he really meant to amend his habits and turn a new leaf. I could see that this young man was serious about his life, though many of them had been just wasted uselessly.

But not all is lost, and the young man wanted to change things and all that he wanted heartily was the support of the people who mattered to him. He had not been a good-for-nothing young lad, who only wanted to waste the hard earned money of his parents with bad company; he had good education, which had fetched him a government job as computer operator with Air India. Who could think of such a lucrative job, which he had to resign, when he could not manage his compulsive need to have drugs, and now he regrets for having resigned the job, and wonders if he would get the same job, after returning home sane and sober.

He was not the kind of young man who did not think about his parents; when he said that his cousins and nieces are engineers and computer experts, he was not even earning a decent salary. As the first child of his parents, he had greater responsibility towards his two other siblings, one brother and one sister, but with his alcoholism and drug-addiction, he could hardly think of looking after himself. What was so very interesting for me was the fact that he was able to recall to mind what had happened to him, and how he could make things new, if only he gets an opportunity to prove his self. But he was not sure if he would survive the full course of the rehabilitation package, which may last as much as six months.

The lady who had been behind the starting of the center, whom I had gone to meet, did not share with the kind of feelings this young man had poured out to me. She had seen him for a month, and she would know about him much more than me. It is possible that my feelings were rather soft towards him, but not for the lady, who almost chased him from me, when she saw that he was talking to me, before she entered her office. Then what she told me about him shocked me: that he was jumping over the wall to get drugs, and was quarrelsome. She even said that soon they would send him away, because according to her, no one was happy with him.

The young man had a lot of complaints about everything possible: food, accommodation, toilets, the lady director, the priest who is supposed to be counseling them, the program proper… He poured himself out, and I listened to him patiently, but without making much comments. One thing was clear for me, more than psychological therapy and medication to keep him free from the desire for alcohol or drugs, what the young man required more was compassion. I have heard stories where empathy and compassion could work miracles, which no human science can explain. I wish the lady and the priest counselor concentrated more on winning the hearts of these helpless victims of circumstances, rather than offering them something which cannot really change them. There is no greater weapon to change than love and compassion.

Making hay while the sun still shines

Meeting about 60 lively youth in a village, during their orientation program was a joy; I had gone to them for an official work, not so much to attend or help organize the orientation. But when the master of the ceremony announced that I say a word or two to the youth, I was at first puzzled as to what to tell the young people whom I had seen some eight years ago, when I served them as their co-pastor for one and half years. But for most of them, eight years would mean that they were either at the age of eight or nine, an age which is too small to remember persons. But I did remember to tell them something.

Today’s youth are the rulers of the nation tomorrow; the fate of the nation in fact, is in the hands of the youth. It is for them to decide what they want to make of the nation. On the one hand, they can just close their eyes and ears and let the nation go to hell, as it were, for it is none of their business to really bother about the fate of the nation. On the other, the can take their role as the future leaders of the country seriously, and prepare themselves to play a significant and responsible role in nation-building. It is for them to decide what they want to do with their lives.

Living in a village, with very limited facilities to forward thinking, one gets the feeling that due to the social and cultural setup, the youth tend to develop certain amount of narrow-mindedness from their early years; and it might hamper their very growth at a later stage. They may have to make an effort to really look beyond their nose, to realize that there is a world outside themselves, and it is for them to make it throb with life and vitality. They cannot look for life and vitality from outside, but they have to come from deep within.

Youth are a suspected lot, and they are suspected by everyone in society; even small children would hesitate to entrust the youth with something serious in nature. They are suspected to be far too frivolous, fun-loving, lacking any sense of seriousness, concerned primarily with enjoying life to the maximum, wasting time and energy in useless things, events and ultimately not taking life seriously. A group of youth which is often looked upon with suspicion cannot progress; they would be often bogged down by fear and refuse to give themselves fully for the work.

Anyone who has passed through youth, will realize that it is the most enjoyable phase in one’s life, because it is the time when one comes in contact with the outside world, but safeguarding oneself not to be drowned by the allurements placed at their disposal. There are important temptations which stare directly at the youth, and if they are not prepared to face them, they can become a problematic area. Today’s youth require role models, who can inspire and motivate them; until they see the fruits of undergoing certain training to spread the light of good life they have received from others, the light set up by others in our hearts will continue to shine in the midst of darkness.