Peer Pressure

He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. To be chosen is something everyone likes. In fact the desire to be chosen is one of if not the greatest openning to destruction in the life of young people. There are a number of television commercials that capture the normal dilemma of peer pressure. Teenagers in a car on a dark street pass the bottle in a brown bag around the car. The camera focuses on the face of one teenager and then McGriff the crime dog comes on the screen and bellowsJust say no. Marketing campaigns tend not to attempt to deal with nuance. There is a main idea don’t give in. But unfortunately this is not the entire problem with peer pressure. The campaign might help keep people from doing certain activities which is a good thing. But it does not address the underlying problem. The problem that we never outgrow. The desire to be chosen. But simply considering the underlying problem as the desire to be special or important to be chosen is of itself not quite all encompassing to answer the problem. Many children who will become influenced by people around them are loved and accepted are chosen by their very birth into certain families. But as young people grow older there is the naturally distorted desire to be important over others. But it is not simply for the desire to be chosen, it is a perverted desire to be chosen over. The desire to be important. The desire that the young person has to assert their own importance. This desire for so many young people becomes manifest in harmful and self destructive ways. The real danger of peer pressure is not giving in to the sirens call, but it is the desire itself to be important. This is a message we prominently send to all young people. It is a conflicting message and it is one that if we are not careful as believers we too can misunderstand. The root problem with peer pressure is that the subject of the pressure is herself or himself wanting to be important. This leads people to search for importance in all the wrong places. In this passage Paul asserts that In Him, before the foundation of the world we are chosen for a purpose. Chosen to be holy and blameless. For many people this does not sound like such a great deal. Chosen to be holy? That does not sound very fun. Chosen to be blameless? Have you really ever lived if you are without blame? For Paul this is something that he is really excited about. There is a reason for his excitement. This business of being holy and blameless is really good news. But to hear it we need to be able to see life as it really is. And seeing life as it really is, can be quite painful and depressing.