I once was on Padre Island during Spring Break and found that it is not exactly the place to prepare a Sunday School lesson. Have you ever been sober among the drunk, old among the young, an outsider among the insiders? If you have, then you know how I felt.
It seemed to me the kids wanted three things:
1. Fun
It appeared to always be somewhere else because they were looking for it frantically. I'd be driving down the road in my family sedan and have cars passing on both sides of me chasing fun. Fun is a phantom. Their laughing was hollow. They were loud, profane, and destructive. Early in the morning the place was covered with beer cans and litter. The fun was expensive. They played the one-upsmanship game of who had the most cash. I got the feeling from some of them that the parents had bribed them to leave home — I could hardly blame them for wanting some space from many of them. The fun atmosphere of spring break was totally hedonistic.
2. Irresponsibility
Three words describe their irresponsible state—drunk, nude, drugged. It was all right for a fellow to go around without his shorts but he had to have a beer can in his hand to be well-dressed. Nudity was the mood, for on the cars there would be all sorts of signs to the women to "get naked". I'm not expert enough in drug behavior, but it was obvious that some people were "spaced out."
3. Anonymity
They maintained their anonymity by staying en masse. I only saw one young woman out by herself and she was obviously disturbed, walking the beach eyes down as if looking for something but knowing that she really was just troubled. I didn't know whether she was an outsider who had been rejected or whether she was guilty. I suspect that she was feeling guilty about the night before. I wanted to talk with her but I couldn't get the right opening. She didn't seem to want to talk, not even to herself. A hideous example occurred at six o'clock in the morning in the lobby of our condominium as the police were interviewing a girl who had been raped by three boys. I was within three or four feet of the three boys when the police walked up and started questioning them. Not a single one of them was carrying any type of identification. I felt sad for all four of them because the girl would be scarred for life and these three instead of going back to school would be going to jail. Yet I know what it is to want to be anonymous and I think maybe we all do because I was thinking that just as these kids wanted to be "in," some of us adults also fight very hard to be in with our group and if we are totally "in" we are totally anonymous. We have lost our unique identification,
I asked one of the girls who seemed to be rather thoughtful how she felt after the binge and she said, "it isn't as good as I expected and I guess I feel frustrated." So often we all have this anticipation without satisfaction. We think the party is going to be great but it isn't . We try for the big title and when we get it, we feel hollow. We try for money, like my friend who made $125,000 commission and felt depressed as he went home. The bank teller he had wanted to impress just stamped it and put it into the stack. So much of our life without the spiritual is anticipation without satisfaction…clouds without rain. A theologian friend of mine says that sin is like the entertainments at the state fair midway ---- the price is high and the ride is short.
The frantic reach for fun, irresponsibility and anonymity is just a symptom of the search for meaning. It doesn't automatically pass with age, but with a decision to mature. I said, "what would it take to reach maturity?" They would have to: (l) turn fun into joy; (2) exchange irresponsibility for accountability. Christ in his talents parable didn't tell the one who doubled his talents to go to Las Vegas; he simply gave him more responsibility. (3) exchange anonymity for being "somebody" - a name written in the book of life.
The danger of the week is not so much the three or four days of binge, but it's the danger that people think that sin is an appetite that can be satisfied. For most it isn't an appetite, it's a fire that never gets satisfied. As we age the fire changes its nature. For some of my friends it's greed for money or power and no matter how much they get the fire is never satisfied but just keeps burning them. Let's make sure that spring break thinking doesn't break us as adults.
