Something Better?

I know I'm not the only one who struggles with wanting something more important in life during high school than dating, fashion, and entertainment. We shouldn't have to wait until college or after college to take responsibility for ourselves and find our calling in life. Often our lives in high school reflect our world view as well as values and principles that we cherish, and if this is the case shouldn't we develop our beliefs early on and figure out how God can best use us for his glory? I am beginning more and more to think like this way. Now there isn't anything wrong with dating, fashion, or entertainment in and of itself, but when it begins to rule huge parts of your everyday life it starts becoming a problem. I guess also what I'm trying to communicate is the triviality of high school life is almost disgusting when you sit back and look at it.

Just look at drama. Its terrible. The majority of people's actions are determined by it. Its selfish. Life shouldn't be about how much of a playa guys are, or how good girls are at flirting, instead it should be about quality relationships with the people around you.  Its almost comical to see how much stress and mental turmoil is associated with this drama. It is sometimes very distracting and people loose focus on the things that matter and often a domino affect occurs and the drama begins to involve more than just yourself. As well as drama there are the complainers. People who complain about anything and everything. I'm sorry if you're one of the them, but why don't you just shutup and quit whining, because its not helping yourselves and its probably not helping me. I wish I could say that I am immune to such actions, but I'm human so I often complain alot. Laziness and a lack of self control are often frustrating to me as well.  Its not fair for the teachers and for ourselves when we are continually cutting ourselves short of our potential.  I am continually trying to push myself to keep plugging along. I know its difficult and I have failed many times at being perfect in these areas, but nonetheless we should try to develop strong habits when there aren't many serious repercussions, instead of waiting until the workforce to realize that employers don't like people who are lazy, who don't listen, and who are always a distraction. Rather shouldn't we strive to be the best we can be in every possible situation. Shouldn't we go beyond the expected? Shouldn't we strive for perfection?

Another frustrating thing in my life right now is the fact that I spend 2 hours every Thursday listening to a teacher discuss the importance of the punctuation in a poem, or the reason for a certain symbol in a story which the author intended to have no specific meaning. Now I absolutely love my teacher. She is one of the best one's I've ever had for literature, but some of the stuff seems a bit trivial to me. For some people, they enjoy it. Instead of just looking for trivial things like that, if feel that we should try to figure out how different stories support, oppose, or are applicable to our life and our world view. Isn't that more of a college prep class, developing your world view, than studying how different symbols and characters react with one another. This year we've read Heart of Darkness and Lord of the Flies as well as The Mayor of Casterbridge and I was of shocked at many of the reactions by my friends to these stories. All of these stories primarily deal with the darkness in man's heart. I almost think that as a result of being home schooled a lot of these kids, myself included, know there is some really sick and grotesque things and people in the world, but they seem to be detached. We see it in movies, hear about in songs, and read about it on the news but most of us cannot relate very weel. Personally I have been sheltered from violence, sex, drugs, and the overall wickedness in man's heart. I don't know but it seems hypocritical when we judge the people in these stories for being so despicable, when we ourselves would be just as bad as the characters in the story if not for the saving grace of Jesus. Sadly many of us are still as bad as these terrible and disturbing characters, if not openly then definitely in our hearts. I finally realized the importance that these books posses for the life of a Christian: they give great glimpses into the life of the unbeliever. Like in Heart of Darkness, the options for unbelievers are either to go over the cliff of insanity and spend eternity in the fires of hell, or chose to be morally upright but still end living eternity in the fires of hell. I think that these disturbing stories of the darkness in man's heart should inspire us as Christians to be the shining light in their dark world.

In the end the reasons for my frustration with the triviality of high school revolve around why not be the best we can be right now even when the majority of the population do not expect us to be; why not do away with the selfish motivated relationships with people and instead build strong and deep ones that actually last more than a few months; and why not learn how to reach out to the unsaved people in this world who need God's light more than anyone else.