I have been studying and breaking down some of the successful YA (Young Adult) novels that have come out in the last twenty years and I see this recurring theme of self-discovery through failed (or quasi-successful) romantic encounters and relationships. I understand why it hits home to young adults. I've been there. In a painful time, people are looking for an identity and how others made them feel helped to form that identity. The crush. What they did or didn't do to act on those feelings. Abuse. Longing. Betrayal.
Sigh. It all falls so far short of what God wanted for humanity. The laws Moses gave to Israel show that. God wants us to have purity. Purity is what will make us complete. The law could provide a fence but it could never produce the life. The life has to come from God. No matter what has gone on before Jesus can bring integrity and wholeness into the most shattered existence.
Here are a couple of passages that just seem to echo in my mind these days.
"For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh." - 2 Corinthians 5:14-16a ESV
"But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God." - 1 Corinthians 4:3-5 ESV
To be completely transparent... this last birthday was a hard one for me. It seems like a bunch of forgotten hurts and disappointments got dredged up from the bottom of my soul. I want to be happy and thankful for what I have but at the same time parts of my identity were formed by events and encounters long ago and my hopes and dreams are intertwined with those things in some ways. I wanted to be more powerful by the time I got to be this age. Maybe I thought that one day I'd have more to give and if I had this overwhelming capacity or great resources I could use that power to shield others from what I went through that damaged me.
I can't escape my birthday (I tried but it didn't work) but those two passages are like diamonds to me. They are priceless tools.
Because of Jesus, we can be involved with people and yet 'regard no one according to the flesh'. Tingles or no tingles. Like or dislike. Respect or little that merits that respect. We can care and not have an identity based on what anyone else thinks or says. How others make us feel no longer matters in that arena.
Secondly, We don't have to accuse or excuse ourselves. Our new identity is God-given. God is aware of us. We don't acquit ourselves. God will one day commend us and each one who believes in Him.
I'm sitting here typing this praying that God would give our generation creativity in communicating these truths to young and old. It is so needed. The things young minds are faced with now are so potentially harmful and fragmenting. We had crazy things in our lives back when we were growing up. I can't imagine having to grow up now.
God, Help us, please. Give us the wisdom to apply what you have taught us in our times of crisis but also help us to freely give out what you have given to us.
"But Peter said, 'I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!' " - Acts 3:6 ESV
This can be our legacy.
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I am here in my Bible reading this morning...
ReplyDelete"That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. ... And he told them many things in parables, saying: 'A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil," - Matthew 13:1, 3-5 ESV
"He put another parable before them, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also..." - Matthew 13:24-26 ESV
In one context we see tares as people but in context, they are counterfeit ideas that look true but have no nourishment. The sower has 'good seed' (truth) but the enemy sows tares (bad information). Our young people are receiving bad information that takes up space in their minds and matches their experience in some way but it is not nourishing. It feeds despair.
"He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he said, 'No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"" - Matthew 13:28-30 ESV
The good sower sows truth and when the season is over in our life we learn what is real and what is false and we become careful to sow the good seed. Young people need good seed sown into their lives. People of every age need that. No matter what their life looks like now. If that seed falls on good ground it produces something wonderful.