In Times Like These

When we were young, we used to ignorantly chant “thank You for the world so sweet, thank You for the food we eat, thank You Lord for everything Amen.” We still thank God for the wonderful gift of life, we thank Him for the provision of food and for everything He grants us; however lately it is a real blessing to say thank you to God, not that is was not a blessing then, but that it makes a lot more sense now - - the realization that the world is no longer as ‘sweet’ as we perceived it was in our younger years, times have indeed changed.

We live in a society where we more often hear of the brutality of humans to other humans and particularly interesting are news headlines of youth killing other youth, children killing family members etc. On a Primary/Elementary level, school used to be a place where we loved to go, it was a place where we had loving teachers, where we made friends and ‘enemies’ we had groupies and we enjoyed playing in the sand, playing “tag, you’re it!” black maipatile, scotch, going to Bible club and doing many other fun activities.

In our Secondary/High school level things were a bit more advanced than playing in the sandpit J it was about the music, making the first team in whatever, it was about academics, friends, and family, it was about going to leadership camp and Bible camp. Came the varsity years, we focused a lot more on our calling, sealing close relationships, going for mission and making plans for the future, that was life, and indeed for some people it still is.

How rapidly things change, what we now perceive as an advanced age with developments in technology, medical facilities, gadgets and wat ookal, has also turned out to be an age advanced in crime, immorality and more psychotic behaviour. Perhaps it’s just ignorance, but it surely never dawned in some of our minds that school would ever be a place of horror, a place where children fear to tread. Not that some of these things were not happening, of course the casual bullying on the school grounds, the pick-pocketing and a few others, well at least in the context of South Africa, it was rare, if at all to hear that a pupil has hanged his fellow for their pocket money or that a pupil decided to go on a killing spree.

“The curse causeless shall not come” we oft look at coming up with a remedy for a disease while we hesitate to look at the cause. What could be causing the current state of society and of our schools? It is said that the home is the heart of the community and quite frankly when you think about it the heart and the brain work as one. Where there is an improper function of the brain and the heart in the human organism, there is a threat to the existence of that organism, it will cease to exist.

What has gone wrong with society today? When a 14 year old is convicted for murder, where do we suggest the problem lies? Some may well come from good families, so where exactly is the problem? Let us hear your thoughts.