Not a stereotype. Just unique.

Today I was asked what I think about the media and if I think the media represent the youth and young adults of Great Britain well.

This is what I wrote:

I think the media represent young adults in the way they think they are expected to. With shows such as TOWIE and X-Factor, they are often promoting an unhealthy example of what it is to be a young adult growing up in this county. We are in one of the toughest era’s this country has ever seen. The generation of the future – our children in schools – are growing up generally fatherless, lacking truly positive role models, void of hope for their futures and exposed in all areas to a World that tells them they need to fit into a certain stereotype, that they aren’t worth anything unless they are thin, fake, easy and successful.

However I belong to a “stereotype” which is growing, relatively unnoticed, swelling under the surface of today’s culture and it is full of hope, with vast prospects and a future like no other. I am secure. I am confident and I am determined to make a positive impact on the world around me. I am talking about a movement of young adults. Thousands of young people growing more and more desperate to see the UK and the world beyond embrace the ONLY answer to its brokenness and finally live their lives full of excitement, hope and positivity. I am a Christian.

I used to live the life portrayed in the media. I used to party hard….I drank, smoked, took drugs, slept my way through relationships, stumbled my way through life, gave myself away as though I was nothing, battled through depression, lived in fear with anxiety and panic, strived to make more money thinking this would finally fulfil me, but I discovered that NONE of this would sustain me. No matter how great the sex was, I would still wake up feeling empty and exposed. No matter how BIG the party was, and how great the high was, I never felt satisfied. No matter how much attention I got on a night out, I never felt loved and respect was non existent. No matter what, NOTHING would fill that part of me that I sought to satisfy.

One night, in 2008, after my entire life had fallen around my feet, I was homeless, the partying had ebbed away and a drug addict was all that was left, I was physically sick every day through my addiction and I had finally, finally lost ALL hope. There was no way out. The debt was too great. My family was too broken. My heart and mind were soooo messed up that no medicine or shrink could fix them. I was at the complete and utter end of myself. That night, I cried out to God and within a moment, my life was turned completely around. I went from complete addiction – one that consumed my every thought and motive, to being drug, cigarette and alcohol free within 2 weeks. Within 1 month I was looking for a rehab. I went from total despair to having hope. Within 7 months I was graduating from City Hearts Rehab and 2 weeks away from starting Bible College.

God has given me strength, self discipline, love, humility, hope, joy and unbelievable peace. He has restored my life beyond anything it ever was. I get up each day with purpose, I know my future is not only bright but also full of excitement and great potential. I don’t feel fear at the state of the economy or feel the need to go out and join this broken generation around me. No, I want to see this generation changed. I want them to find Jesus. I want them to see the future that they can have through Jesus.

It’s time for the Media to discover the REAL Church. Not the Church that is full of broken leaders and scandal, but the Church that is fighting its way through the trades of Trafficking, defending the weak, feeding the poor, restoring the broken, and loving the unlovable. That is the Church I belong to and it’s the Church that the Media need to join. Come on board and join the party that honours the humble, restores the broken and is THE ONLY ANSWER to the state of this NATION!