The late country music legend George Jones sang, “Who’s Going to Fill Their Shoes?” The song simply asked if country music would live on after the current generation was gone. For most of my adult life, I have been involved in global evangelization (missions). I have heard the same rhetoric for decades in the missions community. Will the next generation carry on and build on the work that has been done? The simple answer is yes because of God’s faithfulness. I am encouraged. But this generation also faces significant hurdles, so I ask you to join me in prayer for them.
I am an armchair cultural anthropologist. I went to school for about 17 years after high school. (Do not judge me!) Of all the courses I have taken, the one that impacted me most was cultural anthropology. I became an observer of culture. My thoughts below are simply my observations...nothing more.
First, let me give you the conclusion, and then provide the progression. The daily war between passion and option paralysis has knocked many young adults to the ground
of apathy and inactivity.
I was born less than a decade after the end of World War II. The basic motivation for most people during my childhood was to have a family, a house, and a job. The rally cry was stability. It was easily understood since we were living in the lingering shadows of the Great Depression and World War II. Men went to work every day to provide a home and food for their families. In a very real sense, the job did not matter. It was a job, and it provided stability. For most men, their role was simply to provide the basic needs of life.
By the time I reached my teen years, a significant shift occurred. We looked at our parents who went to work every day, often to jobs they didn’t like but which provided for their families. We said to ourselves, “There has to be more to life than this.” Our rally cry became freedom. We were not about to work a job we did not like every day. So, my ’60s generation made candles and tie-dyed shirts and freed ourselves from the bonds of the establishment. Hippies, free love, Woodstock, and the Peace Corp demonstrated our longing for freedom. The civil rights movement rightfully cried for freedom from racial oppression.
However, it didn’t take long for us to realize we had nothing. So, a new mindset began to emerge. Yuppie voices began to be heard. Climbing the corporate ladder drove our lives. The rally cry became success and money. We traded flower-painted VW vans for BMWs. We shed our bell-bottoms for suits. We were successful. But it did not take long for us to realize we had big houses, boats, and cars but no time to enjoy them because we had to work long hours to pay for them.
By the time we reached the generation of the ’90s, stability, freedom, and success gave way to time. The drive was not for bigger and better but the time to enjoy the “stuff” that filled our garages and storage buildings. We worked for time off. Or, as one of my friends once told me, “I work so I can play.”
Today, I see another sweeping cultural change, a cultural shift in this generation. The rally cry is significance. These cries are not so much for personal significance but rather to do something to make a difference, something with deep meaning beyond personal gain. They want to meet the needs that plague our planet: sex trafficking, unwanted children, homelessness, immigrants, famine, and drought all catch their hearts. But my observation is, because there are so many options, many are paralyzed and end up doing nothing. How do they choose?
Pray this generation will listen to the Holy Spirit’s call, get up, and choose to be confident and faithful to their calling to be the hands and feet of Christ in a hurting world. Pray they, like you, will find their significance and identity in Christ and rest in their faithful servanthood.
About the Writer: Frequent writer and speaker, Dr. Neil Gilliland spent many years as the director of missionary care for IM, Inc.
