For
a long time growing up, really my whole life, I thought that my generation was
going to change the world for the cause of Christ. The older I got, and the
more I grew in my faith, the more certainty I had that this would prove true.
Whether the world ended when I was thirty or thirty thousand years after I was
gone, everyone would remember my generation as the one that changed the world.
Every pastor and youth pastor and camp speaker told us over and over again that
we had so much potential. The world had changed so much since the generation
preceding ours. We were born into the age of the internet, and social networks,
and cell phones, and on and on. We have every translation of the Bible,
concordances, commentary, you name it, all at the click of a single botton. We
have so many more tools then our parents ever had. These speakers would tell me
these things, and the more I heard this message the more I believed it. My
generation was going to impact the world like no time in history before, and I
was going to be a part of it.
Tonight,
my dream collapsed. Tonight, despite my aching for it to be true, I cannot
force myself to believe we are that generation any longer. I look around at
those my age, those older, and the children I see growing up now, and I do not
see potential, as those speakers saw. I do not see hope. I do not see change,
and if I see change, I see it for the worse. When I look at my generation I see
pride. I see lust. I see hate and arrogance. I see children and teenagers who
disrespect their parents. I see a generation that holds grudges and doesn’t
forgive. I see a generation on their knees with hands lifted and eyes focussed
toward Christ on Sunday night, sitting down with hands on the computer mouse
eyes looking at pornography on Monday. I see a generation who sings of God’s
kindness, who leave only to talk behind other people’s backs. I see a
generation who watches “The Passion of the Christ” with tears streaming from
their eyes only to go and with laughter watch “Family Guy” make fun of that
same Christ. I see a generation who uses Scripture to justify the freedom they
have to do sinful things, when that same Scripture was written to tell them
they were free from the bondage of those things. I see a generation too busy on
facebook and texting and twittering and playing World of Warcraft to stop for
five minutes to talk with their Savior. I see a generation who tells me over
and over how badly they want to live for Christ, and I wonder...oh i wonder why
they never do. I look at my generation, and all too often I see myself.
