In our successive stages of adulthood, we experience varying levels of hope and dread for the future of the world. We lament “the good old days”, and social media memes remind us of the specifics. We played outside after dark, we didn’t have cell phones, we drank from the garden hose. Yada, yada, yada. As a pastor, I look at my congregation thankfully, but also wistfully. We are mostly past the prime of our life. We have great hope in The One who saves, but I also hear dread about the future. What kind of world will our grandkids grow into? Where are the new, young Christians? They are at the “non-denom” churches. Even if they are not in my own congregation, I have great hope that our Lord’s church will survive. Young people are ready and eager to take their faith into the world. They are committed, energetic, and gifted.

There is something on the winds. The Scriptures entice us by asking, “do you not perceive it?” God is doing a new thing. Us old dogs, rather than dreading, can be filled with hope. The faith in younger people is personal, but not private. Sometimes uncensored(!) but always refreshingly honest. The winds of change will do just that: change the world toward justice, aside from partisan politics. (I will not launch into my diatribe on our American system of government and its flaws). It all will pass. Young people care about the common good. The old structures will, in one way or another, give way to something that will replace lobbyists and special interest groups who “buy” government by the people, for the elite.

God will renew the face of the earth, the face of our governance, the face of the church. His love extends unconditionally to His hopeful, JOYful people.

Pastor Art