Look, I know we seem kinda hard to reach. Probably a little arrogant too. I'm sure at times we come off cocky, self-centered, annoying, flashy, and over all full of shit. And, well... that's because we are. But regardless of our countless flaws and short attention spans, we are still looking to you. I think it's safe to say that the majority of us are ready to start building bridges between the gap of you and us. So, I thought I'd tell you some of the tools that would help in the building process.
Honesty
We are tired of cookie cutter Christians, and frankly? We're not buying it anymore. We would much rather you be a hot mess in front of us than polished and proper. Why? Because we are quite the hot mess ourselves. Not to mention we are intimidated (and distracted) by shiny things. We want to see your broken ugly sinner self. Guess what? We'll like you better for it.
Mentors.
I think we both agree my generation is kinda screwed up. We might go about asking for it in strange ways, but when it comes down to it- we need your help. Teach us, guide us, correct us. We will probably be complete jerks about it at first, but give us time to figure out how to knock down our own walls, walls we don't even remember building- and I promise we will respect you more for having patience.
Depth.
Stop with the feel good theology. We want and need to know God. Every single dimension of him. Don't water Him down for us. Sure, we like hearing about Grace and Mercy and all the other things that go down easy- but we also want to know about the harder stuff. We want to know about His suffering, and the dark times that come along with following Him. You know why you're young adult groups and youth groups are dwindling? Because we didn't have a clue what we were getting ourselves into with this whole Christianity thing. So when hardships come and God seems far off- we need you to step in the gap. We need you to teach us things about the valley that we can't learn from the mountain top.
Reckless Faith
I know you don't see it right now, but we actually believe all of the verses that tell us to "Die to ourselves, and pick up our cross daily" But we need to be challenged to do it. We need your wisdom and stories and testimonies of leaving it all behind for the Cross. It will scare the crap out of us, but once we pull ourselves together we will passionately pursue your footsteps.
Impact.
Let us change the world. Empower us, and believe in us, Most importantly pour into us. Care about what we care about. We know you want us happy and comfortable and to learn from your mistakes. But we're bored with that. We want to live uncomfortable for the sake of Jesus and others. We want orphans to become ours and we want strangers to know Jesus. We want smaller houses and bigger impacts. But we don't really know what that looks like- show us.
Jesus.
He's not just a list of do's and don'ts anymore. He's a person who we love and would do anything for. Show us Him. Show us his grace and mercy and justice and compassion. Tell us about how you were blind, but then He helped you see. Tell us how you were lost, but then He found you.
Prayers.
Again, we're a bunch of little turds. Blame social media or the Kardashians or whatever but it's true. We need your prayers. And we need to see you praying them. We have no clue what we are doing, let us learn from you.
I know- it's a long list and I may have made it sound like we're needy and exhausting. And, while that might be true it's for a good reason. See, I look around at my generation, and I'm afraid that instead of mounting up on wings like eagles, we're more like parrots. Instead of soaring high and gaining new strength, we're just sitting in a pew and repeating what we've heard. I guess I can't speak for everyone, but I want more than that.
No comments:
Post a Comment