like a fire

Earlier this week, I wrote an article about Generation Y. In response to the Virginia Tech tragedy and in realization of the many public acts of terror that this generation has always known, I was asked the question of how does this generation see the gospel and how does it speak to them. Because of the way that lives have been taken in the past ten or even twenty years, I don’t really see this generation have the same regard for life as the generations past. The reaction to war shows how this perspective has changed. In the world wars, young people felt a responsibility to do their part. Today there is much criticism about the reasons for war and even how we go about it. Most people just assume that they can understand and reason out the need and cause for war at least as well as our generals and leaders. This attitude is represented in many other areas than war.

Our society has a very arrogant perspective, and it is strongly represented in this generation.

Arrogance is a funny thing. The Webster definition of arrogance is: an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions. That doesn’t encompass arrogance though. Arrogance is bred from a feeling of inadequacy or lack of value. I think that Christians become arrogant when they don’t realize their value, and non-Christians don’t have any grounds for anything but intrinsic value.

Arrogance is misplaced because it is based on personal intrinsic worth not God’s extrinsic value in us.

The gospel has something to say to a teen who is trying to find his place in this world with little regard for life and the sanctity of living. The messages I see them getting are that life isn’t valuable unless you are successful in at least one area. It might be professionally or it might be in a hobby, but it is important to be the best at something. For teens this plays out in academics, sports, friendships and many other areas. They see their parents working too hard and too much, and they equate that with personal value. They see their friends succeed and wonder if they could ever be as good as them. The gospel meets them there and tells them that they are valuable apart from anything they ever did or will do. They are God’s glory.

This is turning into a long post so I’ll sum up what I’m saying here. Because we are all God’s glory, we have inherent value that has nothing to do with what we do. The work of the youth leader is to help them see their value in the kingdom and give them to tools to use that value for God’s glory. I can tell that I am going to have to give this more teeth as I explain it to people, but it is a start.