The acts of the flesh are obvious:  sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.  – Galatians 5:19-21

For years, I thought that making mistakes and learning from them was life’s best teacher.  I still believe that, but increasingly I’m learning that other people’s mistakes are an even better teacher.  All one really needs to do is find an older person, ask them what they wish they had done differently, and apply their experience appropriately to his or her own life.  The Bible is full of examples of what not to do and how not to be.

When I was in my late teens, I was saved, but I loved rock music.  God sent absolutely everything I needed to stop feeding that addiction.  He first sent me a man that I remember as Jimmy.  He had a conversation with me about how he went down the same road as me, and God delivered him.  He gently told me that I should stop feeding my mind with the bands I wore on my t-shirts.  “What does he know?   It doesn’t affect me,” I said, along with a lot of other stuff that justified my actions.  I randomly turned the tv channel and watched a documentary called “The dangers of rock music,” I even read a book called “The Devil’s Disciples.”  It made me think, but I still just couldn’t let go of it.  It would be at a small Church of God service that I would ask the Lord to fill me with His Holy Spirit that I would receive deliverance.  It wasn’t a magic wand wave; it was a switch that cut on where I replaced my vegging out to music with reading God’s Word.  Over the next 15 months, I read the entire Bible and listened to very little music.  I finally understood what Jimmy was trying to tell me.  I just didn’t have eyes to see and ears to hear back then.   

Fast forward to today.  I’m the one trying to tell these teens not to constantly fill their minds with all the music and media that is out there.  There was some bad stuff in the eighties, but today so much of it is extremely vile.  Try this:  the next time you are at a high school ball game, ask Siri to tell you the name of the songs playing as the teams warm up.  Read the lyrics of the songs.  Many times, you will find that they are muting out cuss words, and you will find they mute a LOT of them.  No wonder we have a generation who has no problem using such language.  I’ve encouraged a lot of teens to stop cussing, particularly the ones who claim to follow God.  So many are in disbelief that it is wrong (See Colossians 3:8). Their music talks that way, their heroes talk that way, and many times even their family allows them to talk that way at home.  I realize that I sound like a weirdo when I’m the first person to bring this to their attention.  

It’s just crazy to me how things work out.  Here I am pleading with people to follow the Lord, and most of them care about as much as I did when people were pleading with me when I was their age.  I just try to remember that something must have clicked inside of me.  At some point, God began to do His transforming work.  I can only pray that He will do the same with those I share the Gospel with.  

Lord, I so wish You didn’t let us be fools for so long.  Almost everyone wastes their youth.  I know I did.  And maybe I’m wrong, I certainly don’t get to see things from Your perspective.  Just because I wasted mine, doesn’t mean others are wasting theirs.  You are the great God of the Universe . . . nothing is too hard for You.  Send revival across this nation like never before.  Raise up young folks who rebel against this world and its wicked ways and give themselves wholeheartedly to You.  Fill them with the Holy Spirit and make their light shine ever so brightly in this dark world.  Mold me and make me after Thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still.  Use me to bring many to You.  Let me not waste any more life.  Help me help others not waste anymore of theirs.  Amen.