Study: Vanity on the rise among college students

I recently read an article on CNN website regarding vanity and narcissism amongst college students. I find this interesting considering the study was performed here in San Diego which has a large population (200,000+) of college students. San Diego also boasts a large number of universities and community colleges per capita, close to the highest in the nation, which tells us that much of what I’ve been saying; which is that San Diego may be the most apathetic and self-centered city in the nation. I’m not trying to “dis” my city, I love San Diego very much. But like a good brother or sister, I’m concerned for her because she’s very self-obsessed.

This last Sunday I preached a message in Acts and spoke about the toxic nature of combining youth+arrogance+apathy. Being young (I may have to disqualify myself on this description), we are predisposed to youthful ignorance (lack of knowledge), which creates an attitude of arrogance (offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride) which assumes we don’t need to be told anything by anyone, and we know all we need to know. Add to this a rising sense of apathy (the absence or suppression of passion) and you have a pretty frightening combination of personal traits which lead to greater and greater pain in our city and in the lives of those we know.

I’m not sure I agree wholeheartedly with the study, but I do agree that this narcissistic, self-absorbed, self-centered, and self-obsessed description is spot-on within much of the 16-25 year olds that live in our great city.

I realize this is not a new trend, but I do believe we have produced an “I, me, mine” generation which is much more prevalent than previous ones. If the 80’s were materialists, the 90’s were grunge, anti-capital, anti-”the man”, we’re now in a “give me mine, the way I want, when I want, let me have say, don’t tell me what to do” time. I’m not suggesting I have nothing to do with the problems of our day. The sad truth that the problems are not out there somewhere, but right here in my own heart. I find myself struggling with the same selfish tendencies that move away from a Christ-like, grace-soaked living.

Think about Paul’s word to the Philippians:

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; (Philippians 2:3)

What would this look like if we set the tone for such consideration of others needs? How would our own lives, our own families, our own church, our own city become transformed so that we affect our own nation? This is lofty, but it is what we are, by God’s grace, called to. Our Creator God realizes what we need and how we are designed to run. The human heart can not run on the fuel of selfishness or it will break down.

In my opinion, there is no greater a summary of the effects of the Fall than that which the late Dr. Schaeffer gave us. Listen to his words on the great separations that occurred at the Fall:

First is the great separation, the separation between God and man. It underlies all other separations, not only in eternity but right now. Man no longer has the communion with God he was meant to have. Therefore, he cannot fulfill the purpose of his existence — to love God with all his heart, soul and mind — to stand as a finite personal point before an infinite-personal reference point and be in relationship with God Himself…As evangelicals, we sometimes emphasize the first separation and fail to properly emphasize all the others that now exist.

The second great separation is separation of man from himself. Man has fear. Man has psychological problems. How does a Christian understand these? Primarily as the abnormal separation of man from himself Man’s basic psychosis is his separation from God carried into his own personality as a separation from himself. Thus we have self-deception. All men are liars, but, most importantly, each man lies to himself. The greatest falsehood is not lying to other men, but to ourselves. A related aspect is the loss of ability to acquire true knowledge. All his knowledge is now out of shape because the perspective is wrong, the framework is wrong.

The third of the great separations is man from man. This is the sociological separation. We have seen already how Adam was separated from Eve. Both of them immediately tried to pass off the blame for the Fall. This signals the loss of the possibility of their walking truly side by side in true democracy.

The fourth separation is a separation of man from nature and nature from nature. Man has lost his full dominion, and now nature itself is often a means of judgment. There is, for example, the flood at the time of Noah and, of course, nature pitted against job. The separation of man from nature and nature from nature seems also to have reached a climax in our day.

Man’s sin causes all these separations between man and God, man and himself, man and man, and man and nature. The simple fact is that in wanting to be what man as a creature could not be, man lost what he could be. In every area and relationship men have lost what finite man could be in his proper place.

Our redemption means that we are reconnected to our Father, to each other, to ourselves, and to God’s creation. It is vital and significant that we show-off to this world what such a community looks like. The healing work of Christ in each of these four areas must be put on display so that our city can see how kingdom people, living with kingdom values, living under the kingdom rule of the great King, looks. We are to be sign-posts to the kingdom of Christ, not road-blocks. In what ways are we showing the kingdom here and now by being poured out to one another?