Next Generation?

How do you feel about the next generation - those who are in their teens and early- to mid-twenties now? Do you have trust in the next generation, or are you more fearful of the next generation?

There's a tendency for each generation to assume that the next generation will bring us all to ruin. Either their morals are all screwed up, or their priorities are all wrong, or they are endangering sacred traditions or something. Parents in the twenties feared that civilization as they knew it would crumble, as their children discovered motor cars and flapper dresses. Parents in the thirties and forties were certain that Frank Sinatra would lead the next generation to perdition. Then there were those of the World War II generation and the Korean War generation were horrified by we who were their hippie children. Whereas the latter generation sought to protect all their parents had built and believed in, we baby boomers set out to challenge all that. Now our generation has children and grandchildren. It's hilarious to me to listen to my fellow aging hippies. We who once chanted, "Up the system," and "Hell, no - we won't go!" are now saying things like, "These kids today!!"

I must be an oddball, I guess. I'm not worried about the next generation. I don't think they're taking us to hell in hand basket. Quite the opposite. I'm excited by the next generation. In my particular faith - that of being a Jesus-follower - I see people in their teens and twenties who are on-fire for Jesus in ways of which I have never thought. I am learning from them more than they could ever learn from me. I look at them and I have no worries for the future of our movement. Sure, there's a lot about them that I don't understand and will never understand. They don't like to music to which I'm drawn, and they don't do worship they way I may be accustomed. But they know what it means to be in a relationship with Jesus.

So I have no worries. I'm more excited by the next generation than I am uneasy about them. How about you? I'll see you around the next bend in the river.