Growing in Christ
Generation Me
Bandwagon of my own uncertainty
11 year ago
Taylor Mali speaks an appropriate word to my generation; to me: Stop being the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along since, you know, a long time.
As one who has grown up in this generation of furious apathy, this video strikes a cord in my own soul on my lack of conviction. Intellectual laziness and uncertainty (the “whatever” we say about anything) are very easy. It doesn’t require much else than to all moral claims except those that interrupt one’s serene contentment. One can be loudly apathetic and uncertain, forcefully unclear and spineless. (And even celebrated for being so. They call those English Departments and Deconstructionism.) For me and my generation, it’s much easer to just be like, “Whatever man, I just want my carpet back.”
God gives us lots to be certain about in the Bible. The idea of articulate certainty, passionately held in the confidence and humility that it injects into those who treasure God, is expressed in passages like this one:
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. ~ Hebrews 10:23
The Christian’s confidence isn’t in the force of their opinion, or their own mastering of the Bible, but in God himself, who is certain and faithful.
As this applies to my generation of men, called to preach, let this be a rebuke to the beckoning ease of our age to headless emotion. May my generation of men, called to preach, be filled with conviction to speak with the authority becoming the life giving message of the Living Christ and his Gospel.
Me, Generation Me, and Discontentment
03 years ago
In reading on the cultural mantra of “I can do anything” in Twinge’s Generation Me, I read the following line today during lunch:
In a recent survey, a stunning 98% of college freshmen agree with the statement, “I am sure that one day I will get where I want to be in life.” (78)
In this section Twinge exposes how this mantra affects “Generation me” (folks born in the late70’s through the end of the 90’s). Twinge’s remark here got me thinking on cultural idols that are ingrained in me in such a way that I don’t see them as cultural idols. The sentiment that’s reflected in the quote is what contributes to creating a culture and people who have high ambitions, and expect other people to help them make those individual dreams reality.
Making this observation about ambition in my generation helps me make sense of some sins in my own heart I’ve seen lately. There is this burning desire to set a goal, aim for it, and make it happen. Not only does the world not work like that, but neither does God; but in the Gospel, God uses these foolish things of my heart to help me repent and look for growth by his grace. Satan has always bated us away from trusting in God. (Isn’t that what Satan meant when he asked if Eve really could trust God?) For my generation, the bate is self-esteem fueled with the passion to see one’s self exulted in the exact way they want. By my own experience, and according to statistical data, my generation has the idea that when we set our mind to something, because we’re the best judge or what’s best for us, that something will happen. No wonder I struggle with contentment in God! I was trained to by my nature (fallen in Adam, Romans 5:12), experienced in my personal sin (rebellious towards God, Romans 1:18ff.), and couched in my culture (the things of the world, 1 John 2:15-17). Obviously I take full responsibility for my sin; it was my own choice. But it’s helpful to see how my personal sin of discontentment in God is culturally informed. It’s a clean rag washing my window pane – I can see the world around me a little more clearly, why other people seem to struggle with the same sin, and that we really have a lot more in common than what’s admitted to. This isn’t to say that previous generations didn’t struggle with discontentment, but it’s a helpful observation as to why my generation does. It’s as though I’m able to finally see the trick of the enemy; how he’s deceived me through the culture that set’s the ambition for self-glory as the purpose for one’s existence. It’s these things, subtle Trojan horses that my flesh grabs onto to throw my heart into discontentment. Thank God for the Gospel that says that while I was wondering from God, and fully absorbed in the selfish, glory-thieving generation I was born into, he made me alive with Christ Jesus by his sovereign grace alone to instead inherit the kingdom of God. That is so much better.
This prompted another line of thinking for me that pans into a few questions that I’ll list here for further reflection:
- How does this culturally reinforced view of the self and ambition get expressed in the theological sins and struggles of my generation?
- How does this observation effect how I counsel and care for others?
- How does this observation change or influence how I present the Gospel to people?
- How does this observation change how I preach the Gospel to myself?
Wanted Children
03 years ago
Bellow is a quote from a book I’m presently reading, Generation Me by Jean M. Twenge, Ph.D. It’s in the middle of a section where she’s discussing how the education system has forced self-esteem into children since the 1960′s. Here she makes the switch to talking about how parents have contributed to re-enforcing self-esteem into our generation (Generation Me).
Parents often continue the self-esteem lessons their children have learned in school, perhaps because more children are planned and cherished. The debut of the birth control pill in the early 1960s began the trend towards wanted children, which continued in the early 1970s as abortion became legal and cultural values shifted towards children as a choice rather than a duty. In the 1950s, it was considered selfish not to have kids, but by the 1970s it was an individual decision. As a result, more and more children were born to people who really wanted to become parents. Parents were able to lavish more attention on each child as the average number of children per family shrank from four to two. (p. 58)
This observation makes me pause and wonder about how we as Christians view children. Do we inadvertently promote a worldly mindset in our family by taking cues from the culture in “deciding to have children”? I’m unsure honestly. But in light of this observation Twenge makes, do we as Christians take the view of God about our children or our cultures?
“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one’s youth.
Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
~Psalm 127
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one’s youth.
Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
~Psalm 127
