Our Young Adults: Damaged Goods?
Jamaica’s young adults living in high-risk communities are too often treated like damaged goods. We have been told time and time again to focus on the children and to forget about the young adults who seemed to have lost their way. They are seen as a lost generation.
It is true that the Jalawelo team is oftentimes at a loss in terms of identifying a path for some of our most vulnerable youth. They are often seen on the street corners just hanging around lazily and with what seems to be, not a care in the world. However, when we slow down long enough and take the time to have conversations with these youth, we realize we are looking into the eyes of individuals who are desperately looking for hope. Some have made terrible mistakes in the past, and it feels even to them that they are beyond redemption.
You see, somewhere in their earlier lives, some well-meaning person or organization had provided them with a school bag, pencils, notebooks, and even uniforms as they headed back to their primary schools after a long summer break. But, no one had taken the time to understand the childhood pain, hunger, and sometimes even abuse that had been dished out to them as young and impressionable children.
Our broken and seemingly wayward young adults desperately need to hear about a Savior who forgives sins and who can add purpose, meaning, and hope to even the most broken life. We know we cannot help them all. But, we are not quick to give up as we remember our own brokenness, and whisper softly to ourselves in those quiet hours of reflection and meditation, “There go I, but for the grace of God.”
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
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