I think the gap between generations now happens soon than later as the newer bunch of youth change more rapidly than before. I grew up with VHS and making mixed tapes for my friends,the kids these days exchange information in hand-held video format and play interactive games online. I talked on the phone, maybe even had a 3-way conversion, on the extra-long phone cord dragged into my room. My dad would simply unplug the phone on me if he thought I was talking too long (how rude, eh). Something like 75% of highschool student have their own cell phone. A good percentage of them probably have Blackberries or iPhones or other web-capable devices. Things change as rapidly a information is exchanged. Communication is brief and streamed constantly - twittered, if you will. Lives change.
In such a transient society, how to you maintain relationships and build them deeper than 160 characters long? Is it possible to meet on a weekly basis? More than that even? How are we to live in community?
Although the task is daunting, I am hopeful. I'm about 5 years into youth ministry now and am seeing my first string of grade 8's quickly approaching graduation. I hope to reflect with them how the journey has been the last half decade and look forward to growing with them for decades to come. It is not an end but a question of where do we go from here?
I had a brief image today of how a pastor goes through something like 40 years of ministry and the changes that are witnessed, the hundreds of lives that cross your path and the people you see grow up and die, the life-long friendships and the hardships that are endured together to ultimately see your community grow and mature. That glimpse helps to give me patience - the lives I want to see change may not happen this year, or even in five years. We walk and pray together over decades - Moses has to lead a bunch of complaining Israelites for 40 whining years. And he didn't complain. Well, he did but he only to cry out to God directly. I think that's called praying and doesn't count as whining.
Whining is when you don't bring your problems to God and just cry about it to yourself or to a friend. That's useless. If you're going to bitch and whine about it, at least bring it straight to God cuz then He can actually do something about it. Go straight to the top if you need something done. Duh.
What was I talking about? I don't know. It's late and I'm about to lose another hour cuz of daylight savings. Still thinking about a morning run... God willing. :)
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