Peer Pressure

You know that peer pressure can be a really strange thing. Some parts of the issue can't be fully explained by simple analysis. I'm writing this entry because of peer pressure but I am choosing what to write. My peers harass me if I go more than two weeks without an entry.

Peer pressure can be good and it can be bad. Some believe peer pressure exposes who you really are when you give in to the pressure. Of course that only applies if the thing you gave in to was a bad thing. If you were influenced to do good outside your standard character, then you are in a phase or just trying to be someone you're not.

Peer pressure can bring great rewards when acted on and it can also bring great sadness when acted on.

The greatest problem with peer pressure is when you are still suffering consequences years after a decision has been made.

This week I have seen the single most painful,lasting result of a bad decision made earlier in life.

I don't know when the first introduction to drugs came, for that matter I knew nothing about drugs or a struggle past or present with drugs in the life of my friend.

I knew about some issues with alcohol which was probably also introduced by a peer, but I had no clue of any other struggle.

My friend lost his life and everyone believes narcotics were involved. As I talked with another friend he told me of the struggles of so many to shake off and become free of the addiction to narcotics. He said he had witnessed people free from drugs relapse after up to six years. In their drug induced state they acted out of character for them. Often times it resulted in a crime being committed.

In my friend's case there was a crime committed and the proper response of law enforcement ended a life seemingly devoted to God in every aspect. But there was that one area that very few were aware of where satan was quietly using a decision made years earlier to destroy a life, even one devoted to God.

I don't doubt my friend's devotion to God but I will always wonder why help wasn't sought. I will also be left to wonder if my friend had given up on life and become weary in trying to undo the damage done by giving in to peer pressure so many years ago.

If there is any one lesson worth taking away from this experience for those who have never been bound by a drug, it is that in any area of life, God must have exclusive access. When we give Satan any place to set up camp in our life we invite a lifetime of regret for a life not lived exclusively for God.