The Dutch Pineapple

I’m sitting at the awesome public library, looking across the way at 2 cute little boys using the computers opposite me.  So easy-going, assured in their minds that people are good, and life will treat them kindly.  My mind wanders to the young backpackers drifting through our hostel, Amsterdam, and the whole world.  It is such a stark contrast, these boys in the library, and the searching, aloof boys in our hostel.

I see it more in the young men, rather than women, who stay at our hostel.  They are looking for the “truth”in life, they are on their individual spiritual journey, they are ready to surpass the physical for the….whatever.  They are just looking for something, anything that will satisfy this longing for understanding themselves and their place in the world.  They are so lost.  Somewhere along the road of their life, they became disillusioned, with conformity, materialism, authority…and that turned into a disillusionment with themselves.  They ask themselves, “Does my life count?  Does my living change anything in this world?  Do I matter in the grand scheme of things?”  And they get so caught up with these questions that they start to believe that they are nothing and who really cares if I live or die?  Mixed with the readily available drugs, and spiritual bondage of this city, it all quickly leads to a spiral of depression.

Most stay in this form of thinking and drift aimlessly from day to day.  If they run out of money they sleep on the streets.  They give up caring.

Others start to look to different religions for a way out of their depression.  They are fed up with Western religions, and instead look to Eastern spirituality to save them.  They like the idea of being one with the universe, living a good life to get good karma, and eventually becoming a god themselves.  Anything to make themselves think they are part of something bigger, that they count.

Some get tied up in Buddhism, Hinduism, Astrology, the Occult, and other ways of “spiritual enlightenment.” It’s quite scary, really.  They are so willing to find something that helps, that they get sucked into these ways of thinking quite easily.

Some guys talk of smoking a ton of pot so that they can “get into the spiritual world, and talk with angels and other spirits.”

The scary thing is, I think these kids actually “see” these spirits, communicate with them, and ask them into their lives, not knowing the very real and dangerous consequences .  The devil is hard at work here, speaking lies into peoples ears, making them think they are worthless.  And the drugs don’t help, and are like an entry way for even more depressive thoughts and spirits.

It makes no difference what country they are from, school experience, etc.  This depression hits tons of young people pouring into Amsterdam.

Here at the hostel we try to take their searching minds, and point them in the direction of Jesus, the absolute truth.

Of course not everyone who shows up at our hostel is like this, but I’ve seen a lot of people fall into this category, enough to want to write about it.

I pray for their mind, peace in their lives, and for God’s love to reach them all.  I ask you to do the same.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” 1 Peter 5:8

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 at 8:57 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.