Filling What is Empty - Faith and Extremism

"Good Muslims and Christians all want peace. .. . . We must see to it that our brothers and sisters are properly educated in their faith so that they will not be swayed by those extremists".

I have been thinking about the strange pull that extremes of many sorts have for, especially, young men.
Our hearts, our minds, our souls... they are none of them whole, none of them complete.

There is an empty space that only the Lod of All can fill.

I wonder if the ambiguous relativism of, "we'll let the children make up their own minds when they're older," doesn't positively insure that the young are at their very emptiest and their very most alienated at the point when the intersection of physical freedom and lack of good judgement is at its highest - a sweet spot for being led into extremism of one sort or another - gang life, pseudo-religious thuggery, club culture, homophobia or homo-centrism, sports fanaticism....

That empty, God-shaped space is a great paradox - it is larger than the person who encompasses it.

And if it is not God Who supplies it, you can fill it, and fill it, stuff it full of so much you can't keep track of your enthusiasms --- and you will still be empty.

There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.

Blaise Pascal