I’ll Take My Stand with Our Young People
One of the things we often see in the course of a civilization is how often one generation reacts to the perceived mistakes of a previous generation. Often we only focus upon those who rebel in a negative way, and put a bad name on an entire generation. We might think of the stereotypical “hippies” of the Woodstock generation. They had seen what World War 2 had done to many people, and they questioned much of that. Much of their questioning led to sinful behavior, though not all of it was bad.
I am currently seeing a trend–especially among Christian young people–that I want to commend. It has, further, opened my eyes to the fact that they might be reacting to a mistake of the generation of which I am part, and maybe one generation older than me, too.
These young people have a global vision for the Gospel.
They truly do. We have young people from Lebanon Road who are (or have been) involved in mission works in Central America, South America, and the Philippine Islands. We have young people who want to spend their lives in Africa, or other parts of the world. This week, Go! Camp is underway in Henderson, Tennessee, and dozens of students are learning about needs throughout the world that can be used to help humanity and teach people the Gospel.
Look at how many of our college students are studying things like Premed and Spanish; or Education and English; or Psychology and Missions. These are not “odd” pairings of majors (or a major and a minor). They are students who want to use their degrees to reach beyond our borders and share the Gospel with people all over the globe.
I will further state that many of our best personal workers right now are our young people. They invite more than most adults, and they are willing to talk about their faith far more than many of us “seasoned” Christians. Let’s be honest, many in my generation have just sat back and not fulfilled Christ’s command to take the Gospel to the whole creation. I think this younger generation might just be “rebelling” against that, and it is a good “rebellion.”
Is every young person perfect? Nope. But if we see this trend continue, I’ll take my hat off to this generation any day. May their tribe increase, and may we see their example and look everywhere for opportunities to teach…from next door to around the planet.
