In response to ™More Than Meets The Eye∫ by Aaron Evans
By Rebecca Frazer, Contributing Writer
I appreciated Aaron Evans’ article “More Than Meets the Eye” and found it to be a thought-provoking view of our generation. I agree wholeheartedly with his main point that our generation needs those older than us to encourage us and foster our potential instead of constantly reminding us how stupid and socially incapable we are. I also agree with Aaron’s point that our generation possesses a huge about of hidden potential. These observations caused me to ask a crucial follow-up question.
Why is our potential not coming forth?
Why are so many of us lost, confused, purposeless, and suicidal? Why do nearly half of us get an STD? Why do 59% of millennial Christians disconnect from church after age 15? Why do 81% of millennials report that one of their top two goals is to “get rich”? Why are we more addicted to porn than any generation before us?
My generation is unmatched in modern times when it comes to passion and compassion. We love to feel. We feel and we call it love. We are more open, sensitive, and tolerant that our grandparents and parents were, craving community and accepting others as they are. Truly, our empathy for others is our greatest strength. And yet, we are more addicted to porn, more lonely, and more suicidal than those before us.
Friends, our own tolerance is killing us. We are so focused on accepting those around us that we forget to give them life. We forget to give ourselves life. What is life? Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25). Finding life means denying ourselves—denying our deep desires of the flesh to look at porn, to give into sexual temptations (even same-sex), to be in a lustful relationship, to cheat, to gossip, to enjoy violence, to be entertained by the occult, to blaspheme God, to use foul language, and to capitulate to selfish ambition. To truly love those trapped in sin is to show them how to get out: “to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’” (Isaiah 49:8).
The fact that my generation is tolerant of sin is our greatest weakness. If I openly declare my belief that homosexual actions and homosexual marriage are sinful (even though I am sincere friends with people who are openly homosexual), I will be called discriminatory by my peers—even some at Asbury. Outside of Asbury, I may even be sued if I refuse to help celebrate a homosexual marriage. Honestly, that doesn’t really seem like tolerance. And it doesn’t bring my generation any closer to truly breaking free from bonds of sin.
My generation will change the world. Our potential to create change is real, and in one way or another, it will be realized. The question is, will the change we create simply empathize with those in bondage or will it actually break the chains? It’s up to us to decide. Through the grace of Christ—a grace that teaches and empowers us to thrust sin aside (Titus 2:12)—we can break the chains.
