Defining a Generation

I’d like to thank John Traughber and Raja-Man for following.

Where are you going with your life? It’s the question we’re all preoccupied with as young people. I’m half way through my junior year, where did high school go guys? I don’t know. It’s speeding by and sometimes I feel like I’m missing something and I can’t put my finger on what it is.
Where are you going to College? Isn’t it the question everyone asks? What are you doing with your life? Hahaha, sometimes they’re rude, sometimes their curious and often judgmental. What gives them the right to try and define who I’m supposed to be, where I’m supposed to go?

Do you realize our generation, generation X is unique in the whole of human history? We’re the first digital natives, and where living in a world where social structures which have been installed in Civilization for millennium have been drastically changed. The Western definition of marriage, of womanhood and family are all changing. The family is the most basic structure of civilization, it is the nucleus from which all human interaction is created and sustained. People are defined, for better or worse by those they grow up with. Western culture doesn’t have ‘normal’ definition of family anymore.

Humans are also defined by the world in which they live. Yet we live in a world where things are drastically different from even our parent’s generation.
When you combine our ability to be anything we want in this world (a pretty new phenomenon due to rigid social strata throughout world history), and the incredible power of the net, ours is a fascinating generation. We are capable of choosing our own direction for our lives to a greater extent than perhaps any generation before. We are, paradoxically, defined by our ability to define ourselves.

A true visionaries is misunderstood by his contemporaries, perhaps even killed, take Socrates for example. Who will be the Socrates of this era? Whoever it is, we probably won’t know it because our glasses are tinted too much by the cultural paradigm already hardwired into us. Perhaps the biggest visionary will be the man who embraces the structures of our ancestors. If he’s actually figured something out he’ll probably be hated for it, people much prefer the shadows on the wall.

I know I’m a very blessed person; I live in the top two percent of the planet in terms of wealth, and have the opportunity to become anything I want with hard work and determination. I’ve been cut more breaks and given more luxuries, than most of the world in this century or any other. Luxury makes me soft and lazy. The problem with having everything is figuring out what to do. Have you ever walked into a restaurant and been stumped by the menu because it’s chock full of choices? Once you finally pick an item there are half a dozen questions about how you’d like the meal prepared. I love options but sometimes they are confusing.
I’m sitting here, with my whole life ahead of me, and all the roads I could ever want choose from open for me to pick. Now what?

Hahaha, it’s an exciting and paralyzing place to be. There’s a voice in the back of my head going, “don’t screw this up dude, you only get one shot and then it’s off to see Jesus!”
I look at my grandparents, and see how they already knew the direction they wanted to go by the time they were my age. Conversely, I’m stumped about which road is for me. I’m on a big interstate, speeding ahead, desperately attempting to pick the right direction. I’ve ruled out where I’ve come from and those things I don’t enjoy, but that still leaves me an intimidating haystack to sort through.

Conjecture aside, I know the first place I need to go is to the foot of the throne. I need to pray. Frankly I’m sometimes reluctant to pray about the future because I have a rebellious heart which would rather chase worldly things. Here is the root of my confusion. Now God isn’t guaranteed to answer my prayer with a College name and a job application but that’s fine. God is God and whatever He gives me is what I need, even if I’m not happy about it at first.

Regardless of where He puts me it will be my job to hold forth my candle into the vast black abyss of this world and cry out. I’m not the answer to the blinding darkness; I just know where the bonfire is.
This is how I want to be defined. History may name me howsoever it chooses (assuming I’m considered significant enough to mention). Clinging to the cross is all that matters.

What about you guys? Do you unsure of the next step? Or perhaps, do you know exactly where you’re headed?

Thanks for reading!
Levi