3 Life Lessons from Another Generation

As much as I hate to admit this, I’m not really a “young adult” anymore.  I’ve been out of college *cough* years, and so although I’m not a “middle-aged” person, it pains me to admit that some might say I’m closer to that life stage than I am the college life stage.

And yet, as I age grow-up, I am realizing how badly I want to keep a student’s heart! Why? Because this younger generation is inspiring. And I don't mean in the fluffy “you can be whatever you want” type of way but in the reality that "life can be rough" type of way.  

1. Giving free forgiveness

It’s unbelievable to me to see how much students have been hurt. In ridiculous and sometimes horrible ways.  I’ve sat through conversation after conversation in the past few months / years, listening to girls stories and finding out deep wounds that would leave most shaken and destroyed.  But much to my shock, not only are these young people standing stronger in their faith than before, they are walking in grace.

I’ve seen the practical obedience to the hard commands to love enemies and forgive brothers as they’ve said things like:

“She wasn’t trying to be like that. She was just ignorant.”

“It’s ok. God’s grace is deeper.” 

“I can’t judge them- I’ve made mistakes in my past too.”

“I don’t understand it. I’m hurt by it. But I don’t want to stay in this place.”

Their statements are eerily similar to Jesus’ words:

Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; * But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you; ** Father forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.” ***

I can’t help but ask myself, when was the last time I sounded just like Jesus especially in an area as hard as forgiveness?

2. Crying S.O.S.

If you’ve texted with someone under the age of 30 recently, then you may have noticed that the SOS signal is the commonly used abbreviation for HELP in texting.  We won’t discuss whether or not I think SOS is a warranted cry when the text is that they need to borrow a pencil… but I do understand the distress signal for say, chocolate chip cookies!

Regardless, students have no issue with sending the SOS flare.

SOS! I need a flat iron!

SOS! That cute boy from math class said hi!

SOS! I can’t understand Bio!

SOS! My parents are getting divorced.

SOS! I don’t understand why God allowed this to happen.

SOS! My heart is breaking for my friend.

The cries range in heaviness but all are real. All are genuine needs.

At what point in my life did I transition from feeling like I can ask for help for any of life’s situations into the unrealistic belief that I have to be perfectly put together and never admit I need anything? Maybe even more important than asking the when is to ask the why?

Why do we not send the SOS flare when life takes a screeching turn in a direction we never saw coming? Why do we pretend that we’re not shaken, bruised, and distraught?

When was the last time I was genuine enough to ask for help?

3. Living fully

Somewhere along the road of “adulthood,” you learn a secret shortcut… you learn to stop thinking introspectively. It requires too much energy.  Instead, you { I } just go with the flow. We do what we need to do in order to be successful at our jobs, a good member of our family, and an active church member. Rarely do we stop to creatively think of ways to improve ourselves, our relationships, and our spiritual walk.  

It’s as if we are settling for surviving instead of living.

Yet as I have conversations with students, rarely are they content to survive. Instead they want to glean every memory, every experience from their lives.  They want to change in order to better themselves instead of focusing on how to better others.

Now I get that, realistically, as we age we lose some of that energy, but yet we also supposedly gain wisdom. So why don’t apply that wisdom to pick which areas of my life to still exert the most energy so that I can get the most return?

What do I mean?  

• Why do I spend so much energy on obsessing over the little things in my job instead of praying over the people I work with?
• Why do I spend so much energy on trying to meet the world’s fleeting view of beauty instead of spending time investing in my eternal relationship with Christ?
• Why do I get caught up in drama when I could be studying wisdom?

So now what….

I’m learning to learn from those younger than me.

To be a bit more humble when it comes to life.

I’m learning that instead of discounting the younger generation because they haven’t made it to my life stage yet, maybe I should be acquiring their qualities.

To not be so quick to judge. So quick to fix things alone. So quick to survive.

I’m learning that maybe the younger ones have an outlook that actually looks more like Jesus’ than my own.

*Lk 6:37

**Lk 6:27

*** Lk 22:34