“Twenty-something” – I am sure you have heard this term used before, or maybe often, to describe yourself, your friends, or perhaps your children.
I, myself, am a “20-something,” seeing that I am 24, and I think that counts! We are considered many things: narcissistic, self-serving, lazy, the social justice generation, “slacktivists,” activists, the technology generation, the fatherless generation, etc… There are so many words used to describe this generation.
It seems we pride ourselves on the attention and the seemingly uniqueness. However, we often forget to stop and realize that this is the same for every generation.
Each generation is new and unique and engaging in a world that has not yet been engaged by that particular group of people. I am not writing this to discourage you or make you feel that you are not unique because God really has made you unique. However, I am writing this to remind myself that there is more to life than just being a 20-something.
Last week, my grandmother passed away, and I flew to Oregon for her funeral. We spent many days reminiscing over wonderful memories of her and all the great lessons that she had handed down to children and grandchildren.
While at her memorial service I was reminded that, as a young person, I should be slow to disregard the advice and wisdom of someone older. This is not true of all circumstances or all advice. I am sure that some could be down-right horrible, but in most cases the older generations have a great deal of advice to give. Take it. Though we are young and usually have good educations or lots of energy, we have not yet lived much life.
My grandma had seen the birth of many children and grandchildren; she had grieved, she had been hurt; she had been a community leader, an activist, but above all, she loved God. She passed along grace, forgiveness and humility like no one else could do. I would be a fool to not look at her life and desire to imitate her walk with God and her love for her family.
I do not have it all figured out. You do not have it all figured out. I admire our generation’s desire to be a force in the world, but let us not forget who was here before us and desire to learn from that. Perhaps those in your life have great examples to show of this or they have horrible examples, either way we can learn from these things.
In Judges 2 it talks about Israel being a disobedient nation. God had been great to them and shown them mighty and wonderful things, but they had failed to pass this along from generation to generation. In Judges 2:10 it says, “And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.”
From generation to generation we are responsible to pass along the remembrance of the great and wonderful God we serve. Just as it is your responsibility to pass this along to those younger than you, it is your responsibility to receive it from those older. I pray that we are never too prideful of a Christian generation to seek the advice and wisdom of those who have walked with God longer.