Our Future

Today I would like to divert your attention away from the work that is piled up on your desk, the bill that needs to be paid, the phone that is ringing beside you and take you back to when you were a kid. Back to a day where running on the playground was the best. Going back and forth across the monkey bars until you had blisters on the palms of your hands. Back to a day where it didn't matter what you looked like when you ran and nobody cared if your clothes matched or not.

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Now, jump ahead a few years to being a teenager. Remember how much fun school was? Remember hanging out in the halls with your heart pounding every single time that boy walked by? Laughing with your friends. Friday night football games. Passing notes during class. Hanging out in the parking lot after school listening to the radio and enjoying the sunshine.

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Oh how I miss those days! The freedom to just be me. Not a care in the world. No responsibility other than my grades and the few household chores my parents made me do. I laid on the couch and watched music videos every afternoon when I got home from school. I talked on the phone to all my friends and we plotted and planned what we would wear the next day.

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Over the past few months I have been listening to children and teenagers talk about their lives. I have not been listening on the fly by but actually sitting and listening to them. These kids today are living lives that you and I never dreamed of. They are seeing things, dealing with things, carrying burdens and stress that you and I cannot begin to fathom. I personally know of some teenagers who have seen things in their short span here on life that I, myself, at 35 years old have never witnessed. And, when these kids try to reach out and talk or get some help they are hit with responses from adults like "you think being a teenager is hard, wait until you're an adult" or "oh you're just being dramatic, move on, let it go." These kids are getting these responses because no one is listening to them! These kids have these burdens and this stress in their life because of adults who just don't care. Personally, I can't fathom putting my children through any heartache or heart break but when I look back on my past I have done just that and if you stop and think back I'm sure you would agree that you too have done the same thing.

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Our future is these kids. These teenagers are one day going to be the leaders of our churches, our schools, our courthouses, our businesses and here we are as adults not teaching them how to deal with the stresses of life and instead are adding stress to them. This world is nothing like it was when I was a teenager not too many years ago in the 90s and it certainly isn't like it used to be in the 50s, 60s and even 70s. This is a new generation, a new time.

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"Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'" Matthew 19:14. Have you ever thought that maybe, just maybe your arms were designed to specifically wrap around that child who skinned their knee. That teenager who walks with their head hung down. It doesn't matter that you aren't their parent. It doesn't matter that you don't have children yourself or that your children are long gone from the house. These kids just need someone to love them. Someone to give them a chance. Who cares that their music is too loud or that you don't understand the words? Who cares that their pants are half way down their rear ends? Does that make them unloveable? Does that mean you can't reach out to them? These kids are beat down, put down, thrown down and they just need to be loved! Jesus said let the children come to me but as adults and as Christians, what are we saying to them?