Talkin' 'Bout My Generation
I just read this in Judges:
6 After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance. 7 The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel.
8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 9 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.
And I started thinking to myself, "How does that happen?" It seems like we're only the second generation after the Red Sea was parted and the deliverance from Egypt - and the 40 years in the wilderness - and they've forgotten.
How?
The only answer that I can come up with is that the generation before stopped telling the stories - and stopped LIVING the stories. God never stopped working in their lives, but they stopped paying attention and a whole generation grew up "who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel."
And I know that generation.
Or, rather, those generations. It kind of started with mine - I was forced to go to Sunday School by my parents (even though they weren't really regular attenders) so I heard the stories - and I saw the stories lived out in the lives of Sunday School teachers who loved us even when we were unruly, in pastors who took time for sometimes silly sometimes really hard questions from kids. I saw it in people who knew my name and asked me how I was doing.
But most of my friends...well, they went on Christmas eve...and maybe Easter.
And so OUR kids...do they even have a chance?
A generation that neither knew the LORD nor what he had done for...them.
God, let it not be so. God, let a fire spark in the hearts of young people - and in the hearts of us older people so WE can tell the stories, and LIVE the stories and BE your witnesses "in Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria and to all the ends of the Earth." God, let it be so...
6 After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance. 7 The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel.
8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 9 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.
And I started thinking to myself, "How does that happen?" It seems like we're only the second generation after the Red Sea was parted and the deliverance from Egypt - and the 40 years in the wilderness - and they've forgotten.
How?
The only answer that I can come up with is that the generation before stopped telling the stories - and stopped LIVING the stories. God never stopped working in their lives, but they stopped paying attention and a whole generation grew up "who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel."
And I know that generation.
Or, rather, those generations. It kind of started with mine - I was forced to go to Sunday School by my parents (even though they weren't really regular attenders) so I heard the stories - and I saw the stories lived out in the lives of Sunday School teachers who loved us even when we were unruly, in pastors who took time for sometimes silly sometimes really hard questions from kids. I saw it in people who knew my name and asked me how I was doing.
But most of my friends...well, they went on Christmas eve...and maybe Easter.
And so OUR kids...do they even have a chance?
A generation that neither knew the LORD nor what he had done for...them.
God, let it not be so. God, let a fire spark in the hearts of young people - and in the hearts of us older people so WE can tell the stories, and LIVE the stories and BE your witnesses "in Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria and to all the ends of the Earth." God, let it be so...
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