SPRING BREAK.

I'm breaking the silence. Tonight, we're talking in our youth ministry about the passage in Matthew 18 where Jesus talks about entering the kingdom of heaven:

"At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

We'll be talking about the importance of our humility as needy children before our heavenly Father, but before we get started I'm going to talk about what Jesus doesn't mean when he says "become like little children":

1. Stay immature forever.
2. Avoid having any kind of responsibility.

I came across an article today called "Raunch is rebranded as 'confidence'", which talks about the annual phenomenon that is "Spring Break." It had a lot of sad realizations, which definitely resonate with my experience going to a 4-year university. A quote:

"What's happening on on spring break beaches isn't just boys and girls being wild. It's young people... deciding that the way to measure their readiness for the adult world is not in terms of education or emotional maturity but sexual desirability... When they talked about what they wanted to do with their lives, they spoke not of jobs or grad school but of looking good, of having the right equipment and experience to ensure a place in the raunch-obsessed pop culture they'd come to see as the real world."

This is the deception that we as a generation, as a culture are buying: that life is defined simply by the value that other people place on what they can see, and that the blessings of material wealth are to be used to entertain ourselves and avoid adult responsibility and maturity for as long as possible. (I clicked through a few links today to the website of the TV show Greek, and I watched a few minutes of the pilot - it made me want to barf.) Going from an unmarried college student to a married youth pastor has definitely not been an easy transition, but my heart aches for those of my generation who are squandering their money, time, and energy on deceitful pursuits that leave us feeling only more empty and alone, disconnected from the real world. What will this mean for our children? For the countless means around our globe, starving physically and spiritually? When will our eyes be opened to see the terrible waste?

No easy answers, and I'm not free of guilt either - riches are deceitful indeed. But until then, may God's grace may I be a praying pilgrim, being led by God's grace and grieving over a generation asleep. See you soon.