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“One short, soy latte, please?” I asked the Barista at the local Starbucks. “Grandma, do you want anything else?” Today was a “surprise! I’m visiting!” day for me. I need to get away from school and the stress of life. So I went and decided to hang out with a 78 year old woman. Nothing more soothing.
Soon after we sat down, one the employees came over and said hello. I didn’t recognize him, but he was a friend. He said he was an Emergency Medical Technician and going to school to become a doctor. I knew him mainly from ministry. He’s an amazing pillar of faith in my eyes. Really cool guy.
After he left, my grandma goes “ He’s gonna be a doctor?!” She was very surprised, almost shocked. The reason why? Because he didn’t look like it. He has long black hair with a bright blonde streak down the middle. He has what we call today a “trucker beard”. Look’s very similar to a lead singer of a favorite metal band of mine.
She was amazed at this scraggly looking guy, whom she would call a “hippie”. He doesn’t fit the part. Is that ok?
Well, in one of my classes, Philosophy and Sociology in Ministry, we’ve done a lot of research on different generations. I found a statement written by a leader singer for an up and coming band (The Chariot), just signed by a Christian label. He questions the youth of today. He asks the questions that make me frustrated. He said:
Youth is wasted on our young.
It is this that I have feared the most, that has come to pass. "Youth is wasted on our young." At first I was outraged. I wanted to fight back and defend my generation. I wanted to prove how ignorant that statement was. But before the words could escape my lips, I was tormented with how true that statement is.
The point in our lives when we are the most energetic and the healthiest and the most full of passion, is being wasted on our young people, meaning you and me. Our generation. I could not sleep that night because of how disgusted I was. Not just because someone said it, but mainly because I could not prove it wrong. The statement, unfortunately, is true for the most part. Here we are, with the most energy that we will ever have and absolute health and few to no bills to pay, and what does the average young person do with all of that? Sits around and watches TV, or plays on some technological waste of time, or worse yet, wastes all of that energy and zeal on drugs or alcohol, created for no other reason than to alter your state of mind. Why would anyone want their state of mind to be altered? What has happened to our world that would make someone want to alter his or her existence while we are at our prime age in life and prime strength?
To complete the meaning of this old familiar phrase, it is also stating that adults could better use this "youthfulness" because they have lived long enough to realize that we are all going to die someday, and as a matter of fact, that someday, is soon, and they would actually do something useful with this "youthfulness."
So we ask ourselves, "Why would they use it so much more passionately and with so much more gratefulness than us young folks?" Well, that is easy, because through their years on this earth they have come to learn that most everything is trivial. And life, as far as on this earth, is short. So they are saying that if they had it to do over they would use their energy to the fullest extent and their passions would be spent on items that actually mattered and their lives would be much fuller and richer. What they are also saying is that, they too, have wasted their youthfulness. They are saying that only now, have they realized that life is so short and most of it is wasted on trivial things or technological advances that do nothing but keep us lazy and dependent on the technology itself.
So I say, "no!" I am not going to be a part of that stupid phrase. I am still young. I still have energy and passions and zeal, and I still have my life. I will not sit back and watch it all go while I stare at a box with moving pixels. I will not be another wasted youth and grow up only to realize that I should have followed my dreams more, or always asking, "What if?" I will not. Isn't that why we are here on earth, to learn from other people's mistakes so that as each generation grows we grow wiser and wiser still? What happened to that? Where are the people who actually care anymore? Is there anyone that cares enough to actually try to be different? Does anyone actually NOT want to be exactly like everyone else? I know that it is easy to just copycat every other person in the world. But isn't there anybody who cares? Am I the only one who cares? Am I the only one that sees this downward spiral going on? I think not. I think that there are many more people that have thought about such things. But I also think far too many people just give up on their dreams, on their goals, on their life.
I know way too many people who have not seen the ocean. Do not die having never seen the ocean. Do not wait until you are stuck in the cycle of life and work and sleep, to realize that maybe you should have gone to see the ocean, or any other form of God's amazing works. Don't exit this earth asking, "What if this dream could have came true?" You don't ever have to think, 'What if I would have only done ___________?" You never have to think that, because we still have today. We have right now. Turn dreams into goals and get them accomplished. Or at least try.
I apologize for the length of this message, but I can not get that out of my head. I want to also apologize to my wife and my band because they had to hear me go on about this topic for hours. I love you all. And I want to leave you with this, so that maybe it will click, and it will change your life as much as it has changed mine.
It’s really got me to thinking. It reminds me of the Lord's Commission. I get tired of reciting it over and over again. Are we actually ever going to do anything? We have technology beyond our dreams and computers, TV’s and cars, that waste our time, day after day. This is more than a retreat in a bloody, beaten battle. This is a “don’t give up!”
The youth in our day expands in time. The average age of a young person extends deep into the 20’s. If this is true, then we have more time to do what’s needed. We’re like Peter who looked away, with Christ saying “It is I; don't be afraid."
So put your own agenda aside and do something. Something is always better than nothing. But please, don’t let your youth be wasted.
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