Yesterday saw students around the country walking out of classes to draw national attention to the events of one month ago in Florida. Many believe that the long term hope is that the government will fix it all for us. The implication sometimes sounds like, we can keep on living however we want and just get angry at the government for not protecting us from ourselves.
Something needs to be done, and quite possibly, many somethings need to be done.
After speaking with my own sons and daughter about this subject a couple of nights ago, I have come to realize that we are raising a generation in fear. They are so much more connected to all forms of media than I ever was at their age. They get all the news in all its depressing darkness. Their childhood has been seasoned with a heaping dose of fear. It has been mixed together with a few cups of social media. And all of this is often baked in an oven of depressingly low expectations that there is anything really out there for them in the future.
And in this difficult wasteland of adolescence, I see flowers pushing up from the ground. I see a generation that is learning to love. Learning to hope. Learning to press ahead. G0d has created us as an extremely resilient and flexible species. To belabor an old cliche, we “take the lemons and make lemonade”. It is what humanity does! Because we bear the image of our creator, we create good from bad. We take ashes and press them into diamonds.
I see that hope for my children. I see that hope for this next generation! We placed them in front of screen and then chide them for always wanting to be in front of screen. We gave them cell phones and then criticize them for always have their face in a phone. We developed social media and expect their young minds to have the wisdom and maturity to handle such a serious responsibility.
But to be clear, my hope for this next generation doesn’t rest only in human resilience. My hope rests squarely on the shoulders of the Almighty God who is capturing the hearts of this next generation one person at a time. My hope is not in the government to fix the problems. My hope is in God raising up a new generation with hope, and love, and peace.
I have seen signs of life in the barren landscape of this next generation. Just like every generation they have been handed a mess caused by human sin. They won’t do it just like us, but they will do it with the presence of the Holy Spirit alive in this next generation. The future has hope, because God is there!
What are some of the positive things you have seen coming out of this new generation?
