Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Generations alongside

Monday, March 20, 2017

From Psalm 89 and Luke 2
Through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness ... When he was twelve years old Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, and his parents did not know it. When they found him his mother said, "Son, why have you done this to us?" And he said to his parents, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand what he said to them.

Jesus entered puberty just like you and me. He needed to separate from his father and mother just like we did. His parents, like parents everywhere, didn't like that much. "They did not understand what he said to them."

Berkeley pastor John Mabry has written a spiritual "companion" to the classic Generations by Strauss and Howe. The earlier book attempts to describe generations of Americans from 1584 into the future, to 2069. A similar cycle can be seen each century, from colonial times into revolutionary years, through the Civil War into the World Wars and now to the present era.

A "Civic generation" (responsible builders) is followed by an "Adaptive generation" (compassionate reformers), which is followed by an "Idealistic generation" (radical visionaries), followed by a "Reactive generation" (disillusioned pragmatists). Reactive generations are usually followed by another Civic generation, and the cycle continues.

American Millennials, born between 1981 and 2000, are the next "Civic generation." Here are some of Mabry's observations about them:

• Have known more care, companionship and privilege than any previous generation in history
• Hopeful, optimistic, happy
• Primary experience of the world: connection (to parents, grandparent, family, friends, and world via online technology)
• Confident, smart, cooperate well with others
• Zeal for building a better more secure, more cooperative world is like that of the G.I. generation (the last Civic generation in the cycle)
• While older generations argue, they quietly get online and solve problems
• Older generations see them as spoiled; they see themselves as happy
• They are not yet parents, but their children will most likely be the next generation of adaptive, compassionate reformers (born between 2001 and 2021).
• The Divine is transcendent but largely irrelevant. They may subscribe to "Moral therapeutic deism," or ethical humanism. They are the least "religious" generation in history.
• Connection itself is a foundational aspect of Millennial spirituality.

"Least religious" does not mean least spiritual. This most-plugged-in generation knows better than anyone that I-phones light the way to little more than one more app. They are more likely to unplug than their parents. And what David Brooks calls "surrender to some orthodoxy that will overthrow the superficial obsessions of the self" can lead them to create a thoroughly different kind of church, but worship the same God.

I think Jesus learned about God in prodigious leaps of intuition alongside intense study, never-ending questions, and his own born-with assurance of God's love. Hopefully, his parents had to struggle to keep up. Like good parents always do.

Jesus loves the little children of the world. Can I just follow them, be one of them? I see you up ahead, Lord, even if I don't know where you're going. I get caught up quickly in what I think I know. Instead, I want to follow Jesus right into the presence of the priests and listen to all those questions he asks. I will learn more from Jesus' questions than anyone else's answers. Let the old wax fall from my ears, Holy Spirit, so I can hear the questions you have for me.

Devotions Archive

Generations alongside

Monday, March 20, 2017