Here are eight reasons millions of young people have chosen God. Most of the reasons deal with searching for a higher purpose, asking fundamental questions, overcoming disappointment, sadness and insecurity. These are often the younger person’s way of approaching the question of belief in God and it is a very good to start and maintain a relationship with God
1. Finding Meaning and Purpose
Young people are looking for meaning and purpose in their lives. As they grow, there’s a restlessness that starts to grow with them. They begin to look for patterns and meaning outside of things they’re told.
Young people learn very quickly that morality is sometimes complex. What is the greater good? They also see quickly too that we are beings who tend to be selfish by nature, so defining morality can often be defined to suit one’s interests and not for the greater good. This leads to the question of who is a good person? What are the motivations of someone who is good?
Young people also recognize that there is a sort of natural morality that’s hardwired within each of us. It is why children know very quickly that something is not fair and they cry in protest. What part of that morality is just selfishness and what part of it is actually universal?
Religion attempts to answer these questions. Faith in a God as a person who is perfectly good and who can demonstrate what purely good human motives are – through the example of Christ – can give solid guidance to young people. The example of Christ can give young people a sense of concrete direction and destination in their lives. It can give us hope and confidence that there is something behind those things that cannot be touched and that we are worth more than the sum of our parts. It can also give young people principles for sorting between goods that are truly good to the core vs goods that are merely superficially good.
2. Seeking Guidance and Direction
Young people are often confused and disoriented as to the future. They need direction and the Church has a rich history of guidance on the path to truth and peace. And peace is highly valued by all irrespective of age because it drives energy, friendliness, confidence and son on.
God’s direction through Scripture and the Church is also highly valued because it is above all others. This means that young people can confidently make decision based on divine revelation and centuries of trial and error. They can learn from what has worked well over centuries as well as what has failed repeatedly. Moreover, a relationship with God can also be a source of personal direction. Young people can talk to God directly through prayer and conversation in their hearts as well as through quiet listening during their prayer. This is particularly helpful to young people who are particularly vulnerable and need direction in their lives. Many testify that God has helped them when friends and advisors have failed.
3. Finding Comfort and Support
When young people feel the beginning of discomfort or the breaking down of their support system, they can ask God for help. The amazing part of all this is that God’s character in Christianity is a person that wants to help all people who call on him. This makes approaching him with trust so much easier especially for young people who may not want to ask other people for advice.
Some young people feel attracted to the concept of a perfectly good and merciful God when they need him or are going through various difficulty. A merciful and loving God who loves unconditionally is highly important for young people who are prone to feeling sad, depressed, disappointed, defeated, or simply down. In these kinds of situations, a simple recollection of God’s love can unleash comforting and supportive power for young people. This is often the beginning of a relationship with God or a deepening of a previous relationship.
4. Building a Community and Belonging
It is important to remember that Christian communities are unique in their organization and their functioning. They very much resemble a family relationship. Many people who come into the church name church build lasting friendships and attain new brothers, sisters, parents and grandparents.
In a unique way, the Christian community extends to all Christians in the world as well as those in heaven. This can be very reassuring. Young people can rely on the prayer of saints on earth and those in heaven. They can ask for prayers on social media in online groups and communities and can have confidence that they would be prayed for.
This unity of church community helps break through deep loneliness and alienation that most young people feel. Who would not want this type of support and love from others? With the church, a member never is alone.
When young people belong to the Church, they become bonded with other people who share the same outlooks on life that they do. They know others who are living the same way that they are. They get together and talk about the same things. They pray to the same God. They discuss the same values and norms. They support each other with same books, movies, programs, and symbols. In short, they belong, not only to each other but to the church community in a relationship with a church that will continue for life.
5. Personal Transformation and Growth
Another reason young people choose to believe in God, is because through God’s word, and his Church, there is a rich vault to learn from. Scripture, tradition and the magisterium of the Church not only provide guidance for many day-to-day scenarios but they also challenge the young person to do what is right and not only what is convenient, easy or popular. The Faith also helps people to shape and sharpen their conscience: that inner voice that that has always been there. The teachings of the Church help to parse between the inner voice that is of God and therefore good and the ones that are not.
Moreover, the teachings of the God through his Church promote free will. This means that while young people can rely on ancient teachings about God and their lives as human beings, they can also learn that they are free agents in their lives. They have the power to choose and therefore to design their own destiny. The tension between receiving advice and practicing freedom is an adventure that is attractive to many young people. Their lives become predictable and unpredictable at the same time.
6. Facing Life’s Challenges
The sixth reason given as to why young people turn to the reality of God is this: many of them, at some time in their lives, experience a crisis which causes them to question many fundamental aspects of their lives: their identity, their purpose, their value and so on. Often this crisis is triggered by a milestone or painful event such as the transition into puberty, rejection by peers, sickness, of facing death, problems of drugs or alcohol in their lives or in their environment. Some young people choose God at this moment to get answers to their questions, or to experience a closure for tragedy that they have experienced. Some may also get comfort from the knowledge of a living God who loves them unconditionally and who intends to help them through their difficulty.
7. Experiencing Miracles and Divine Intervention
Young people who have experienced the love of God in their lives through concrete activities or even miracles are more likely to search for and develop a relationship with God. A search of some general statistics in the United States using AI technology can give a general idea. The search indicated that seventy-five percent of young seminarians are strongly convinced that they have observed a genuine miracle and an additional 22 percent belief in such phenomena. Slightly over 90 percent of students who offered their perspective on this question at two catholic high schools are also convinced that miracles occur.
When God does manifest power and love in concrete ways to assist in the affairs of people, it sends a powerful message. It is especially noteworthy that the personal experience of young people with miracles often leads them to place greater importance in these signs. For young people, experiences of God’s miraculous interventions powerfully demonstrate His love and care and remove doubts about His existence and role in human affairs. Even miracles in ordinary situations are appreciated and add to the evidence for God. A majority of older seminarians, especially those finishing the seminary, reported that they have personally observed a situation unfold where an effort to secure success clearly seemed inadequate, and yet the effort succeeded. Faculty members and chaplains of two Catholic schools in the same study confirm that there are countless instances of such observable answers to prayer from students and members of their families.
8. Finding Hope and Optimism
There is much evidence that the language of religion, faith, spirituality, and the restorative nature of Christian justice which is highly linked to mercy and rehabilitation remain attractive to young people. Even though the news continues to highlight all that is wrong with the world at large, and at home, many young people face turbulence from others or from their own behavior and tendency, the central message of Christianity which is that the most terrible injustice (man killing God) can be overcome by God himself because of his love for man.
Moreover, the Church and religious institutions have traditionally provided comfort and direction for people in answering the inevitable questions about life and death, good and evil, tragedies, and the afterlife. In times of despair and hopelessness, the human spirit can cling to belief in God who has – in human form – proven that he has overcome all negativity and obstacles both in this life and permanently in the next.
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