I am passionate. I am passionate for my generation.
There are lies that have been spread, and some truths used as ammo to wound us as a whole.
According to these lies we are:
Unreachable, helpless, incapable, rude, angry, selfish, disrespectful, and will never see a revival.
I am passionate and broken because I know that this is not true, at least not for a good amount of us.
Dear generations before us, yes, we are a broken generation and their are people that seem to be suffering from all of these problems listed. But, hopeless we are not. To say that the chance of a revival in my generation is impossible, is to say that our God is not big enough. I don’t know what God you are in a relationship with but MY God is big enough.
Yes, we are hurt. We have been selfish, rude and disrespectful. Well, some of us, but not all of us.
You forget about those of us who have given hours to our Church in the nursery, with the youth, and spent even more hours volunteering at the nursing home, gathering supplies for those effected by hurricanes,or helping at the homeless shelter.
The unfortunate truth is that the people that were missed in your generation had children that are being missed in my generation. At this point in the history of the Church if a child is not reached with the gospel and establishes what they believe by the age of 12 there is a 98% chance they will never, ever believe.
Don’t get me wrong, you are not completely to blame, and I am not bashing you because I love your generation and I respect your generation. You have lived more life than I have and probably have acquired much more wisdom than I. But, please do not point your finger at my generation.
I have heard numerous times that we should be happy in our own skin and not look to the media for what size we should be, what we should wear, ect. But, I ask this question where should we look to beauty when there are not very many godly, respectable Christians defining what beauty is. What do I mean you ask? Modesty is understandable, it is defined in Scripture that we should not cause a brother to stumble; it is just ignorance if we ignore that. But, beauty, size.. where do we find this? Yes, I firmly believe that God creates everyone perfect; but we look and see husbands leaving their wives for younger women they have been having a relationship with for years. I see families separating because they “fell out of love”. What now? I know what you may be thinking, no, it is NOT from people that aren’t saved. It is people in ministry, YOUR generation. If we should love the way we look, “being healthy doesn’t have to be a size two” then why are you telling your daughters you felt the best being a size two during your eating disorder in high school, and why are you looking at younger women pass by while your little boy stands and watches everything you do; and why are you cheating on your wife or husband? I am not naive I believe marriage is hard. But, what happened to those vows? Do you really question why our view of marriage, love, sex, and beauty is so tainted? We are watching you. And it may not even be our parents, mine and the other adults I am close to, and respect have had godly, loving relationships for 25 years +; but it only takes a few other ones to make the doubts deep inside seem realistic. What if I get wrinkles, and can’t lose weight after I have kids someday; will my husband leave me too? Help your generation and see their needs for godly marriages and godly marital counseling before you only focus on talking about my friends being single parents. They are broken and searching for the missing detail called: “Godly Marriage and Relationships”. And yes, we do need help understanding what that means, but in an honest, loving way.
Each year over 400,000 college age students ranging in ages from 18-25 attend Passion Conferences all over the world. In Atlanta, GA college students raised over a MILLION dollars for causes globally. Why? because my generation is PASSIONATE about change, they are broken over the hurt in this world. Maybe it would help to take a look back at the economy in January 2010, it wasn’t so strong was it? So bad economy + students whose luxury food is ramen noodles that come in a cup should = everything you say about us. But Economy+ poor students x Passion for the gospel= 1,000,000.00 for Christ.
Yes, I see a messed up generation, but where are 400,000 of people your age going that is like passion? We are lost, but so is your generation. And don’t get me wrong, I'm not saying it's your fault but we learn from our elders. So, a good deal of responsibility falls on those who we should be looking at. So, what is the generation before us going to do to help us? Like I said before I know so many adults that I love and cherish that HAVE done a good job. But, why are some still preaching about us and not to us? Tell us what you want us to do because we have been sitting here in Church begging for the opportunity to change diapers, clean up after communion, pass out bulletins, and rake the yard of that older lady who cannot make it to Church. We want to know that you WANT us to help!
Dear Church, you see a generation full of messed up people doomed for hell. I see a generation that can be changed by the overwhelming power and love of Jesus Christ. You have wisdom we need, you have jobs we cannot begin to fill; you have done much and much thanks should be given. But, preaching that my generation is helpless doing nothing to save it absolutely breaks my heart. Yes, for some reason we think that Facebook is a real alternative to face-to-face communication, and that people need to know every single detail of our day via Twitter. But, you have to hand it to us that we can keep in contact with people around the world more effectively; and when your child or grandchild taught you texting it opened up a new world. No longer do you have to leave a performance to tell your husband where the mustard is; or tell your wife that it is only a leaf caught in the air filter and her car is still safe to drive. Did you ever imagine touch screen computers? Admit it right now, even if you don’t understand technology, it is impressive.
I might have a sharp tone to my writing today but that is because I am passionate. I have a God who is capable and yes, if no one else is with me I will change the world myself. Is it scary? absolutely terrifying. I watch E! and CNN, the world does not take kindly to those in opposition of the flesh. But, I don’t live my life to please the ruler of sin, but the King of Kings. So, generations full of people that I respect and love, when we say that we are passionate about something are you just going to tell us it is crazy because, well, you have seen the rest of us and we cannot do it.Or are you going to see, there are people that are sinful, but redeemed and so passionate to do more. Because to be honest I don't need anyone one else that let us because we are "young" and don't know what we are talking about. Yes, being responsible with money is important; yes, it probably will be hard. Yes, college is very important. Think back to when you were 20, what did you miss out on because older people were telling you the logical thing to do? We need your input, but more importantly we need your encouragement so that we can be and do all that we were called to do.
I think it’s time to stop being logical, and start being passionate about Christ. It was not logical for the disciples to leave their jobs and families to follow after Christ, what they did was based on the faith that the man called “Jesus” had something greater in store for their lives than they could ever imagine.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to give them beauty for ashes, a garment of praise for morning. That they may be called oaks of righteousness. The planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; for my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation”.
Whew. I feel better now.
