He goes on to rant (just a little bit) about how, as someone who is technically part of “the whole generation” in question, he took offense to this person’s comment. He states, quite correctly, that teenagers in general do not have a blatant disregard for authority, or a sick sense of pleasure in ruining the established order. They are simply still learning how do “do life”, and the last thing they need is discouragement and negative affirmation. As I read, I began to realize on how many accounts I’m guilty in this whole situation. Let me list them out.

I’m guilty – Of being part of “this whole generation”. I will turn 25 in a couple of weeks, so it has been awhile since I’ve been a teenager, but I’m still part of the Millennial Generation (graduating class of 2000 and onwards). I grew up with MTV. I can’t clearly remember life before cell phones. I spend a (probably more than) reasonable amount of time on the internet, watching TV, playing video games, and listening to music.

I’m guilty – Of bashing “this whole generation”. I have always gravitated towards those who are older and more mature than myself. As a result, I sometimes forget that I’m a part of the same generation that some older folks like to bash. I’m on the front-end of the generation, but that’s no excuse. Like Cox says in his blog post, I should be leading the way for those who come behind me.

I’m guilty – Of not leading the way effectively. If the middle and tail-end of “this whole generation” turns out crappy, I am at least partially to blame. Why? Because mountains of research back up the fact that, even though on many levels parents are still the primary influence on adolescent behavior, peer groups are an ever-increasing influence on the lives of young people. If the people who are only a few years younger than me are screwed up and worthless, then at least part of the reason for that is that I have done a poor job exerting positive influence on them.

I’m guilty – Of not recognizing that to characterize “this whole generation” as anything is shallow and near-sighted on my part. Including people that I went to middle/high school and college with, people I pastor now, and random teenagers I’ve seen in traffic, the mall, etc., I might actually have encountered 5000 young people (my middle/high school experience was about 3000, about 1000 in college, and probably less than that since then.). For me to make a judgment about an entire generation of more than 40 million people based on my encounters with, let’s get crazy and call it 10000, is ludicrous. The same thing happened in the late ’60s. People look back on that time and think about how powerful and influential and pervasive the “hippie culture” was. Hippies accounted for, at the largest estimates, no more than 1% of that generation. I don’t have any data to prove this, but I would be willing to bet that a vast majority of “this whole generation” don’t live up to their stereotype as disrespectful delinquents.

So that’s it. Guilty as charged. I’m a well-adjusted, responsible, thoughtful citizen. I have made mistakes, but have learned from them, and am still learning how to ‘do life’ better. I’m a Millennial. And I’m proud to be one.

Peace.

An insincere heart would read that statement and think, “So I can have a heart devoted to God, and still do whatever I want… Awesome.” That, however, would betray the heart as insincere. A heart devoted to God will not seek to do whatever it wants, but will seek to do what God wants. The intention will be there, even if the proper actions aren’t. Like in this story of Solomon from 1 Kings 3:1-14.

At this time. the Israelites were worshiping at the ‘high places’, altars to foreign gods that had been built on hills and plateaus in the past. Israel had strayed from God for so long that many people no longer knew that, according to God’s law, the only proper place to offer a sacrifice to the Lord was in Jerusalem. Solomon was no different. For much of his life, everyone had sacrificed to God at the high places. Why should he do any differently? Yet, because his heart was so sincere, this passage tells us that God looked at Solomon and was pleased with the intention of his heart, even though, according to the letter of the law, Solomon had sinned by not sacrificing in Jerusalem.

The moral of the story – don’t get hung up on what’s “proper”. When your actions are governed by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, there is no law against them.

Peace.

I was doing some research today for our upcoming worship service, and ran across a verse that I must have read before – Psalm 90:12 – but never thought about as an answer to one of life’s tough questions. Whenever there’s an unexpected death (an accident, sudden illness, disaster, etc.) someone always asks the ‘why?’ question; why did this happen?, why did this person have to be the one?

As I was reading through some scripture today, Psalm 90:12 jumped out at me – ‘Teach us the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.’ That says to me that sometimes people we care about die so that we have the opportunity to gain wisdom by recognizing how fragile life is and how much we need to rely on God.

Maybe that will give you some hope and some answers if you’ve experienced a loss recently.

Peace.

…my advice? STOP GIVING YOUR KID CIGARETTES!! SERIOUSLY!

Maybe it’s just my youth and relative inexperience in ministry (I’ve been at it 3 years), but I never cease to be amazed when God allows me to see into the hearts of junior high school students. That happened this week, and I want to share a couple of examples that I believe are indicative of junior highers as a whole. I’ll change names since some people that I know and that know these kids read this blog occasionaly.

Allison - Allison might have been the prettiest girl at camp this week. She was tall, skinny, and, when she let her guard down, had a great personality. The problem was that, most of the time, her guard was up. She was aloof, seemed disinterested, disrespectful, and was focused almost entirely on her camp ‘boyfriend’. In terms of physical appearance, she looked like one of those young people who are trying very hard to make people think they’re not trying at all. Know what I mean?

But Allison’s bravado and aloofness was all a show. One of the female counselors in her cabin told me that, as pretty and in shape as she was, she was the most vocal girl in her cabin about how much she hated her own body. This girl is probably 5’9″ and about 120 pounds, and she complained almost constantly about her weight when in the cabin. When she thought no one was looking, she would un-guard her facial expression, and the pain and insecurity in her life was as visible as if it was written there with a marker. It was utterly heartbreaking to see such a beautiful young girl with such low self esteem.

Kristy - Kristy was another girl at camp this week who broke my heart. She came to camp with a girl she knew from home. By the end of the first full day, she had completely abandoned her friend from home in favor of the ‘cool kids’. I literally saw her running from her friend from home in order to catch up to the cool crowd on more than one occasion. At meals, she didn’t sit with her friend from home. At chapel services, she usually ended up sitting with the cool kids, without a backward glance for her friend. The message was as clear to me as I’m sure it was to her friend – “You’re not part of the cool crowd, so you’re not cool enough for me.”

The message was received. Kristy’s friend from home spent most of the week alone. The hurt on her face in her unguarded moments was heartbreaking. My heart broke for them both. To Kristy, only one question in life matters right now – “Am I part of the cool crowd or not?” Sad.

James - James is one of those kids who is a natural leader. And like so many natural leaders at this age, he has no idea at all that he is a leader. He’s one of those kids that all the other boys look up to, no matter what he does. Good or bad. They all want to do what James does. Like a lot of junior high boys, James puts on the cool/athletic/confident/charming facade. But like most junior high boys, he is every bit as insecure and self-conscious as the junior high girls. He craves attention in any form he can get it. And, unfortunately, it’s much easier for junior highers to get attention for hijinks, pranks, and misbehavior than for anything positive. So we had some trouble with James this week. He wanted to attention on him all the time, even if it meant acting out to get it. At the root of it all is his insecurity.

In fact, if I had to sum up everything I learned about junior highers this week, it could be summed up with the word ‘insecure’. Each and every one of them is struggling to find out who they are and where their place is in the world. It makes me sad, but it also gives me new energy to try to invest in their lives.

Know any junior highers? Observe them for awhile, and see if the word ‘insecurity’ doesn’t come to mind.

Peace.

Bedford, VA, holds the dubious distinction of being the U.S. town with the highest per-capita death rate on D-Day. 19 of 34 men from Bedford were killed on June 6, 1944, while storming the French coastline, all from Company A, 116th Infantry, 29th Division. Bedford is the site of the United States’ D-Day memorial. As far as memorials go, it is fantastic. Google it. Did you Google it? See the guy facedown on the beach? That statue is inspired by the story of my grandmother’s cousin, Raymond Hoback. Raymond’s body was never recovered from the flotsam after the battle, but his Bible was. The Bible he carried had been a Christmas gift from his parents in 1938. Corporal H.W. Crayton found the Bible laying on the beach on D-Day plus one, and was kind enough to send it back to Raymond Hoback’s family.

The impact of D-Day on the town of Bedford was huge and tangible. Bedford is a small town, even today. Losing 19 young men in a single battle was roughly equivalent to losing half a generation of men from the town. It’s really not possible to overstate the importance of D-Day to the town of Bedford.

As I pondered all of this last Friday, sitting in my aunt’s living room, reading an article from the Roanoke Times, watching the local news (more than half the broadcast was devoted to D-Day celebrations the following day), it occured to me that D-Day is not just a huge deal for the history of Bedford, VA – it is a huge deal for the history of us all. If you read up some on World War II, you will quickly discover what a huge, desperate gamble the invasion of France was. The stories of gallantry, heroism, and dedication to the cause are too numerous to recount. And it is in large part because of the heroism of so many men that the Allied Armies were able to defeat some of the worst evil in human history.

If you’re not sold on why you should get excited about June 6 each year, do a quick Google search for Bedford, Virginia, and read up on some of the personal stories. For me, it’s enough to be related, however distantly, to the inspiration for a war memorial. And it’s enough to see my grandmother tear up with pride and loss (in that order, mind you) talking about her cousins who didn’t come home from France.

Peace.

I ran across this video on a blog I read, and I have to say that this tops all of the ‘Baby Got Back’ wedding dance videos out there. I hope this becomes a new trend. Congratulations, Brian and Eileen. You officially have the coolest wedding video ever. Enjoy.

What I don’t get is the way Jon and Kate are acting in public and on their show. Kate has not only been the subject of speculation and rumors about her personal life apart from Jon. In a recent issue of People Magazine, she sat down and discussed all of these issues at length and with startling openness. My wife read the whole article and kept saying, “I can’t believe she’s talking about this with People. This sounds like a conversation she and Jon should be having with a marriage counselor.” I agree.

Jon has been more silent about all of the drama. Even so, throughout tonight’s season premiere, both Jon and Kate addressed their personal issues. Both kept to what they’ve been doing publicly – Jon maintained that he and Kate were working on it, but that it was their business; Kate addressed things more directly.

The saddest part about all of this is that both Jon and Kate are making such poor choices when it comes to their family. Both said over and over tonight that they’re in it for their kids. But the fact that they’re even doing a season 5 tells me that both Jon and Kate are more interested in what’s in it for them. For Kate it’s obvious – she has two best-selling books, numerous speaking engagements, etc., in addition to the money I’m sure they receive for allowing the show to be filmed. I don’t know what’s in it for Jon, apart from the money. But the fact is that there would be no season 5 of Jon and Kate Plus 8 unless they had both signed on the dotted line.

I have a feeling that this season is going to be a) the last, and b) extremely uncomfortable. Tonight’s show made me squirm. Both Jon and Kate acted like they were pleading their case in the court of public opinion. I don’t know if I can take a whole season of it. My fervent hope is that they will realize the toll that all of this is taking on their family, stop filming the show, and work out their issues. Based on the choices they seem to be making, it doesn’t look like either of them is really serious about addressing the real issues they’re dealing with. The end result of not addressing hurt and conflict is always heartache.

-Golden Idol for Outstanding Male 2009: Nick Mitchell, a.k.a. Norman Gentle. I said in one of my first posts on this blog, and I stand by my declaration, Nick Mitchell is my American Idol. No one in the history of American Idol has so completely committed to simply being entertaining.

-Queen Latifa and L’il Rounds were great together. L’il got shorted by the judges, but she’s got a lot of talent. And I think she’s got a career ahead of her.

-The Jason Mraz number was pretty cool until they brought in all the rest of the top 13. They should take a clue from how popular the duets were this year, and get rid of the big song and dance numbers.

-Megan Joy should never be allowed to dance in public again.

-Golden Idol for Best Attitude 2009: Katrina Darrell. You knew bikini girl would be making a comeback. I don’t think anybody actually liked this girl, but guys definitely liked looking at her. Regardless, you can’t argue that she’s got tons of confidence/guts to stand on tv in front of tens of millions in her bikini. She’ll get an offer from Playboy or something. Kara might, too.

-Does anybody else think Kris Allen’s dad kinda looks like Meatloaf?

-Message to Danny Gokey: No, it is not you we’re looking for. We made that very clear two weeks ago when we kicked you to the curb. And it felt like that medley was going to go ‘All Night Long’. Lionel Ritchie is still the man, though.

-Kiss rocks. Adam rocks. They’re both very theatrical. Match made in heaven, if you ask me. Pyrotechnics are cool, too.

-Watching Matt sing ‘Black Magic Woman’ was more than enough to make me glad he didn’t win. And pray that he doesn’t ever make an album. Uncomfortable…

-Steve Martin on a banjo.

-We Are the Champions was awesome. It was pretty clear that AI wanted to hand the title to Adam (or at least make us think they were). Queen is right up his alley. Honestly, can you think of another modern front-man who could come close to Freddie Mercury in terms of vocal prowess?

-Kris wins! Both guys were awesome. They’re both going to have great careers. I’m glad that Kris won. It does a couple of things… 1) It shows that America liked Kris better, and 2) Adam will be freed up to do whatever he wants to do musically after the top 10 tour is over.

Great season. Best Idol season to date. I’ll be back with Idol recaps in January.

Peace.

-Paula Abdul looked like an Oompa Loompa tonight – orange skin contrasted with bright green. Lay off on the spray tan!

-Adam sounded bad on Kara’s song. Also, his pants were atrocious.

-Kris sounded bad on Kara’s song, too.

-Kara’s song made Adam and Kris sound bad. The final song this year was a great reminder that even someone like Kara DioGuardi, who has written a ton of top 40 hits, still writes 10 pieces of crap for every hit.

Bottom line is that it’s down to who America likes more. This year, more than any other year so far, neither finalist is clearly better than the other. It’s totally down to preference. Do you prefer theatrical, glam-oriented, slightly experimental rock? Or do you prefer a more laid-back, singer-songwriter type of vibe? Your choice, America.

Peace.