Well 4am came dark and early this morning. I woke up with my heart pounding, feeling like it was on fire. Don't know if it was all the happenings of the past few days or maybe I ate too late after the ballgame. Either way, God brings good from all and it got me out of the bed. I do usually know when I wake up at whatever time and my heart is already pounding and my mind is full that early in the day, the two usually are going together.
I woke up with the younger ones on my mind this morning, some I know, some I don't. They are the ones we now have labeled as the Millenials, that's the age group of 11-30. I was thinking of them in light of what I blogged yesterday and the past weeks Eddie and I have spent talking about them and researching them. I thought about the 14 11th and 12th grade girls Julie Revelle and I had piled up in my den floor Sunday evening for ingroup bible study, for those who came a few hours earlier just to hang out. I thought about my high school boy who is living out his faith in the darkness of a public high school and my two living on a college campus which is private but definitely not always a Christian atmosphere. I thought about my married girl and her husband who are burning it at both ends trying to reach the next generation and disciple them and grow them up in the faith, pouring everything they know into them. I started thinking of other young couples in this age range I know who are striving to live a life for Christ and for those whom Christ isn't really on their radar that we need to reach. The research tells us that this generation isn't going to put up with a lot of things the way they are especially in the church. They won't tolerate the beaurocracy of the way many of us do church. They'll go somewhere else or they won't go at all. They don't have the stomach for all the whining about personal preferences in the church, whether it's how you dress there or the color scheme of the building. They are much more into getting the job done and get on with it. Their attitude is let's just get out there and make a difference rather than sit in meetings and squabble over how we're going to go about things. If they're Christian Millenials, they want to see discipleship happen and then lived out and then go out. In light of that...
I am so super blessed to have received so much encouragement and love and through the phone hugs and kisses yesterday. I didn't blog to get those but they sure felt good. My inbox was overflowing and the numerous texts drained my phone battery dry. I am so crazy about each of you. I told Eddie that if crappy emails are what it takes to stir our people up to go out and love and encourage and look for the positive and then speak the positive and shut up the naysayers, I will take an email like that once a week. I responded to one message yesterday by saying that I am one of the chief complainers about the negative people being so loud and obnoxious and the whiners whining to get their way and how much I want the positive people to stand up and cheer loudly the things of God and all that He's doing in them and in their church that I just thought well it's time then for me to shoot down one of the negatives and shout some positive myself LOUDLY. When others speak a word of negative, can we counter it with a positive word? When someone speaks against another, can we just speak some truth over that? Because if we don't start, I'm scared of what those younger ones are going to be left to think. We all know those who turn the younger ones away by their attitudes or actions. Those who are a stumbling block or offense to them. Someone may have done that to you when you were younger, I know someone did that to me and some have done it to my own kids. Are they going to think that this Christian life is real and it makes a difference or are they going to think we are a bunch of complainers who want our way about everything? Are we going to have anyone behind us to hand the baton to and say run with it and are they going to take it or say no thank you? I know it's easy to think well what can I do or there's fewer of us or whatever but the early church started with a few and the more persecution there was the faster the gospel spread. So, that's why the "persecution" of a coward sending an email doesn't bother me so much, it's not even worthy of calling it persecution it's just annoying BUT we can use it to fire us up and energize us to stand firm together and be determined to MAKE a difference and BE different. It can be a catalyst to push us forward and I don't want to go backwards and I don't want to stand still. We can't afford to do that. There's too much at risk if we do...there's an entire generation at risk. So my challenge to anyone who wants to take it...
Look for the positive and then proclaim it. Speak the truth in love even if there's a cost. Look for an opportunity to encourage the younger ones. Share what Christ is doing in your life NOW, not 10 years ago, but what He is doing in your life NOW with someone who needs to hear.
I love you and am blessed to know so many who encourage me in the faith. Encourage someone else today. I'm taking the next few days and getting away, gonna be computer free, but surrounded by some of my favorite people. Have a Terrific Tuesday!!
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