Many Different Worlds

Thursday, July 28, 2022

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!  His faithful love endures forever.  Has the Lord redeemed you?  Then speak out!  Tell others he has redeemed you from your enemies.  For he has gathered the exiles from many lands, from east and west, from north and south.  Some wandered in the wilderness, lost and homeless.  Hungry and thirsty, they nearly died.  “Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble, and he rescued them from their distress.  He led them straight to safety, to a city where they could live.  Let them praise the Lord for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done for them.  For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.  Psalm 107:1-9

I’m a Baby Boomer, a generation of those born within 18 years following the end of World War II.  Subsequent generations were Gen X (born 1965-1980), followed by Gen Y, or Millennials (born 1981-2000), and Z (1997-2012).  Those born after 2012 are called Gen A.  The “move” spiritually and religiously has been towards the church is irrelevant syndrome.  As never before (at least in my lifetime and experience) younger people are progressively moving towards the exit door of church, in favor of “community” a loosely-defined search for refreshing change from the deadness of their parent’s “wasted-time” in the four walls with three hymns, recited liturgies, creeds, and a sermon of three points and a poem.  About the only agreeable worth for this on a Sunday was coffee and donuts (if provided).

Those for whom this description fits (loosely or like a glove) asked themselves the question:  What are you doing here?  The answer was mainly unsatisfactory. 

In some ways I couldn’t agree more.  At times the preachers, or other leaders made the discipleship process of following Jesus so uninteresting you wonder how any young people’s faith survived the entry process.  Like the Psalmist said:  Hungry and thirsty they nearly died.

MANY DIFFERENT WORLDS is an aptly described gap between Boomers, Millennials and the other letters.  This is not to say there isn’t ample precedent for young people ditching the established institutions.  Along with half (or more) of my Boomer friends, I was a lapsed believer in my teens and early 20’s. 

In the 17^th century a teen boy told his father the church and its’ music was so boring he couldn’t stand it.  His Dad said:  If that’s so, go write some better stuff.  The young man did just that, and we still sing Isaac Watts’ hymns these days.

To say we have “lost” the next generation is a two-fold mistake:

1.    That generation is yet to mature, age-out, and die.  We should be careful to not prematurely judge the changing appearance of spirituality.

2.    No generation is beyond God’s hand.  Martin Luther rebelled against a vile, dark church of his day; that didn’t turn out too badly the last 500 years.

So, coach, what do we do now?  How shall we live to reclaim and revitalize the faith once delivered (and now, seemingly deserted)?  I believe the game plan is unchanged from the playbook of Jesus’ first-century team – scatter and share!

In the daily living we do, we must continually be sharing the Gospel as the first Christians did, spreading-out from Jerusalem as they lived their daily lives, telling the Good news one-on-one, with a positive message of hope, love, and joy.

For You Today

Whichever of the DIFFERENT WORLDS you live, God calls us to connect with others.  The game plan is always scatter and share!  As the coach said to his team:  That’s the game plan, now go, and play your heart out!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts in the Rocky Road Devotions library. 

To dig deeper on today’s topic read:    Good News   and   Patiently Patiently...O Lord How Long?

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©