The Young Ones (A Primer on Proclaiming the Gospel to this Generation)

Was this the easy path, or the tough narrow one? It's been a year and a half as a teacher of sorts. I had repudiated the rat-race. The money was good, I noted, but the hours were long, tedious and tiring. Ironically, while I've had my stresses in this new line, spending so much time giving to others, the returns have been worth it. To my up and coming peers, service to the children (and to the Church) is immensely rewarding. If not financially, then intellectually and spiritually.

Yet, when I see the young (or should I say, younger - most people would consider me to be "young", too) - I worry. When I was...younger, I brushed off fears of the new technology as the worries of neo-Luddites. I am slowly beginning to agree with them to a certain extent. Human interaction takes place primarily with screens. And particularly small screens at that. While they give us access to enormous resources, we have become somewhat dependant, indeed almost locked into them so that our world has become rather myopic. Those are my worries. I still stick to a wait and see approach. But what I'm seeing can sometimes be both exhilarating and unsettling.

That's one part. Another worry concerns an event that has been on-going for a long time now. I dismay at seeing my faith lose relevance to the world. Yes, this has been happening for a long long time. But reading about it in the books and seeing it in action are two different things. You struggle and ask what's the point as your beliefs slowly seem to become more and more esoteric - teachings that better belong in a distant past and not today's world (I recall the words of Bultmann who, nearly a century back, dismissed traditional Christianity as being rendered untenable by the advent of lightbulbs. If lightbulbs, what more touch screen phones!)

The Gospel, at least in the much of the modern world can no longer be proclaimed "as is". I often hear stories of Orang Asli folks who convert, teary eyed, at hearing the story of how Yesus saved us. I admire their faith, but suspect that won't fly anymore with today's young, who are themselves being evangelized by non-believers and other anti-theists. I often see image macros reposted, with anti-religious one liners. Compelling at first glance but easily deconstructed. But the short attention spans of today's generation has no time for that. And so, at least among the peers I have observed - religion is treated with disdain at worst and indifference at best.

Which all comes back to the world as we have it today. A world where people can rely on medicine more than God (which is virtually unprecedented). A world where "science" holds more hope for progress than "religion". And so it goes.

This is not about rebranding or marketing religion to the young ones, the new generation, one that is more connected, knowledgeable (okay, in my experience, not necessarily) and aware than the ones before. This is, rather, about taking stock and looking back at how we have grappled with the herculean task of the Great Commission. The methods have changed, but the message has not. Is time then, to reformulate the basic truth claims of Christianity? Maybe, maybe not. We can all agree that the death and resurrection of Jesus (no matter how trivialized and ridiculed it has been made up to be - and in a sense, rightly so) is the sine qua non of our faith.

Ironically, it is a historical truth claim - one that simply asks to be examined and if found true, to be believed - that has so often been ignored in an age where faith is constantly being pushed as believing what you know ain't true. The touchy feely Jesus is my best friend/girlfriend/boyfriend proclamations won't cut it anymore (my personal opinion) with today's youth. A head in the sand mentality with science's claims of the universe won't do too (I recently heard a preacher attempting a critique of evolution by saying "If evolution is true, why are there still monkeys?") If you cannot get the things of this world right, what does that say about your handling of the things of God?

We, the young Christians, have to do deal with all of this. Proclaiming the Good News has never been so easy; it has also never been so difficult. God help us.

Why Study?

Again, another post summarizing my thoughts ahead of a short talk.

There were words to what I love to do. To learn things, to teach myself. Auto-didact. Polymath. Jack of all trades. Amateur. Homeschooled. That was then. After finishing my degree, I could look forward to work. And then - family, children and finally death. I was not entirely interested with that path.

Being a teacher of sorts, I deal with students who ask almost all the time "Why study?" It is not usually a direct verbal question of course (only one so far has come up to me and asked, "Teacher, why do we have to study?"), but through actions and little slips of tongue. 

Tomorrow is a holiday. Cheers (and not too many moans) result. These people are excited there is no school. Fair enough - everyone could use a good break now and then. But really, why would we rather play than study? Sure, studying is rarely ever as fun as playing (although it can definitely be). 

Again, the question is why study at all? There are two types of  reasoning behind this question. One practical and one philosophical. "How is this useful?" I am asked again and again. The asker holds up a math problem, or a diagram of planets. I explain that even if this has no actual practical use in life, it's still "good to know". They walk away unsatisfied. Really, would our lives be any poorer if we did not know that we can determine the chemical composition of stars by their colours? 

That is the practical aspect, and I will try to address that. Firstly, I wholeheartedly support the idea to teach young students as many things as possible in our universe from the start - from the common to the esoteric. Besides enriching our lives, this wide knowledge allows us to focus on the things we actually do like. Would we know that cells are fascinating unless we first study them? That finding out the hypotenuse of a triangle is a delightful exercise unless we actually do it? 

Well no. We do not know unless we do. Students often have "pre-destined" careers in mind, usually as a  result of strong suggestions by their parents, peers or others. Doctor, lawyer, engineer. They even have their dreams. Astronaut, musician, veterinarian. Sometimes they pan out. Often they don't. But we won't know what we really want to do unless we know about it. 

And of course the obvious - by studying we get knowledge to do jobs that pay better and hence, live better lives.

Then the philosophical aspect. We study, we work, we die. The end. In many worldviews, this is the case. Under a Christian worldview (which I and the place where I teach operates under), this is not the case. Our lives here are not the end but the beginning. We learn now to have a head start on the life to come. We do not forget our old lives when we begin our new ones, but remember - precisely so that we learn and avoid the mistakes that we made.

Why study? I once asked that question. Then I opened a book and learned about how our universe began from an infinitesimally small singularity, how life has died and lived and died a thousand million times over, about kings from a distant past who conquered half the earth, about a God who sent his only Son to die for humans, and in so doing I learned about me in a way I could not had I not access to knowledge, the light of which shines deep into our souls to illuminate our existence.

Things I Have Learnt

An old home.

I have learned that while God may be silent His servants are not. (God is silent to many; for others he speaks and lives in them)

I have learned to love and never hate. (This, to the surprise of many, comes easily to me)

I have learned that I will sin, and sin again and again. (And that means I have yet to truly learn what sin is)

What would I like to learn?

To pray more. To talk more. To mean more.

Simple things. I hope.

Update.

I sure have been busy. No time to write and I realize that my time is limited, after all. Opportunity cost is something I very much have to keep in mind. Do this, and you are not able to do that. Still.

I also realize that I am walking towards the fork in the road. To where shall I go? The wide or strait? The well trod or not taken?

A managing director of a hotel once told me how an employee he interviewed asked if she could take less pay in return for less working hours. He explained that for his generation, that would have been unthinkable. Money > Time.

And perhaps it is with this new generation, me included. We are more well off (thank you, parents) and so would rather trade money for time.

I worked in two MNCs. One almost the complete contrast of the other. The first was populated with a (mainly) older workforce. They were the definition of workaholics and would give me frowns when I left at 7 sharp. They would put in 16 hour days and a few could even be found there on weekends - voluntarily, without any overtime. This company had a truly dedicated workforce (as for me, hahaha).

The other was composed of younger people - mostly around my age. They would work their hardest to work the least. The management (which always changed) always looked upon what they saw with frustration. Almost everyday they would call a meeting and yell at everyone. Nothing changed.

So two different cultures - was an age a factor? I don't know and won't generalize. Still, I am of the latter generation. I would rather be at home, sitting and reading a book (or doing nothing) than toiling away in front of a computer earning overtime.

I look at some of my peers who are earning much more and wouldn't mind joining them. Money, especially a lot of it, would be nice. I did earn good money (for a young, entry level worker), but could only describe the work as "soul crushing". It wasn't hard, just deadening.

I'm now working in a job which does pay me less, but in return I get to work less. I like it; not just the free time, but the job (actually, it's not really a job) is something I actually kind of enjoy. But nobody would consider it something permanent. I must earn more and I must start a family and so must earn even more and so on and on.

This is one justification I give to explain my career choice. Now another.

You see, I believe that our souls are immortal. Death is not the cessation of existence. And so my worldview is thoroughly shaped by this belief. Whatever we do here has - no matter how small - eternal significance.

So inevitably, when I look at the accountant or the lawyer or the aircraft pilot or even the doctor (bless all of them) I see something quite trivial. Now I am not saying that what they do is trivial (although I would say that if you do not believe in an afterlife then they are even more trivial), but for me to do that is something I find personally repugnant.

And so, while the ordinary man strives to feed his wife and child I wonder about the meaning of it all with existential dread and childlike delight.

Recap

A new year approaches and it's been forwards and backwards for me. I realize how much I (still) have to learn and grow. It's always good to be humbled and frankly, I wouldn't want it any other way.

Perhaps there are a few things I wish I had. The obvious of course, but more than that, I wish I knew what to do after this. But it's only natural.

Project Lauterbrunnen nears its due day. Ah, the joy of seeing a "big" goal finally being accomplished. Will be writing more about it soon. But I'm happy to say this - instead of saying I will do it "someday", I can now put a date to it. =)

Another big goal has to do with religion, another with science and another with both. I've barely scratched the surface of the first. The next one will be an even bigger challenge. But the last shouldn't be too hard - I think. When will I finish it? I'm thinking in the decades now. God willing, I'm projecting the completion to be right before my threescore years and ten are up.