an Age of Innocence

Have you ever wondered why kids seems to be so much tougher these days?  I work with many students every week and there are a few qualities that most of them have in common.

Most are extremely intelligent.

Most are extremely strong willed.
Most are emotionally stressed.

Most are disconnected from reality.

Most are under motivated.
Most are easily impassioned. 

These characteristics all seem to fall on the post 9/11 generation.

True, this is not your normal memory post spilling over the events of where I was or how I felt or what went through my mind as I watched the second plane fly straight into the second tower.  The only thing that I will say about that day is I was young enough and naive enough to believe that this tragedy had to be some kind a queer error.  No one would openly attack the United States of America.  It was an accident.  A mistake.

I grew up quick that year.

I may have grown up that year, but it seems as if this generation just behind me was born "grown up."

They were born with their innocence lost.  They were born in the midst of two wars.  They were born into a society that fought against itself.  They were born in the age of a cover up. (No, I'm not a truther.)  They were born to see and to question and to doubt.

As the helplessness and godlessness of our culture continues to saturate our society, they are, literally attacked by adults and other students who want nothing more than to destroy their lives.  In my mind I have this mental image of little monsters and big monsters chasing these students around the halls of their campuses and into our homes and just sucking the life and soul out of them.

They have to be strong...or maybe emotionally distant is a better description.  They are under attack.

And that is just...well,...sad.

To think that they will never believe that a humanity has an immense capability to love and to do good.  To think that they will never know what true peace on earth could look like.  They will always question and always doubt.  They will always analyze and look for the cracks in the truth.  They will relate the present heavenly Father's love with the "love" of their absent earthly father.  They will justify their mother's lack of affirmation with the belief that they are worth nothing.

But in spite of these negiative possibilities we must remember this: they are only possibilities.  Maybe God put these characteristics in this generation knowing the challenges of the age they would live in.  Maybe He gave them the strength to stand up against the injustice.  Maybe He gave them the wisdom to ask the tough questions and demand answers that make sense and work.  Maybe He chose this generation to be the greatest of all.

I don't have the privilege of being a parent just yet, but that is a blessing that I often pray for.  When I do have children entrusted to my care, I hope that God grants me the wisdom to see the possibilities of their lives...to see that they are a generation destined for greatness and not calamity.  

May I challenge you with this thought?  When your children are driving you to the brink of insanity with their questions and their strong willed spirit think how God could use that for His glory.  How He could literally change the course of history with one person who is sold out and dedicated to the purpose of restoring justice to the world. 

The events of 9/11 may have robbed be of my innocence, but it will never rob me of my hope--a hope for a brighter peaceful future.  A hope for a world full of life, love, and children.

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Why I Believe Friendship is Always Worth It

I've struggled with writing this post for a number of reasons.  First, if I write this post and someone reads it, a lot about my own person will be public.  I don't like that.  Second, it's just hard to write because I'm still battling the internal consequences of this encounter.

Two summers ago, I found myself in a terrible disagreement with one of my dearest friends.  Really it was just a difference of opinion, but I was so stubborn refusing to allow her opinion.  I still believe I'm right.  She still believes she's right.  No one is ever going to change either of our opinions.

In the end, that relationship was severed for quite sometime. The circumstances revolving around our disagreement are not important to the story so I will spare you those details.  To say that our relationship has been tense is an extreme understatement.

Over the last couple of years she has asked to meet with me.  Each time I declined, and with good reason too, but about two months ago, I reconnected with her over a Saturday brunch.

As I sat across the table from her, she recounted the stories of her world traveling, of the lives that she'd touched, of new relationships formed and lost.  I looked across the table at a lady that I no longer knew.  I could remember the joys of our friendship.  I could remember the activities and the places.  I remember long nights in the dorm room studying, watching tv, eating guacamole chips, but as I looked at this face I wept on the inside...

...and I missed our friendship.  

I missed her.  

She has become a remarkable young woman and one that I value and respect, but I don't know her.

But here's what I know now.  None of my stubbornness and none of my strong willed attitude is worth the loss of this friendship--of any friendship.  It's just not worth it.

True friendship is a blessing.  And how rare it is.  To find a person who will never judge you.  To find a person who will hold your deepest, darkest stories as her own secrets.

Here's the deal...

          Friendship is always worth the cost.

Friendship is always worth just dropping it.   

Friendship is always worth forgiving.  

Friendship is worth the uncomfortable encounters.  

             Friendship is worth it all.

In actuality, our relationship will probably never be the same, and that's fine.  But I will work to build that friendship again and hope and pray that we can again laugh and remember the past with joy even those few years of complication.

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Epic Fail

To you, my dear bloggy friends, I have an apology to make.

I came into this week with high expectations of this blog and myself.  I planned to post like everyday and I even posted that it was going to happen.  (For your visual proof.)  But then, life came swooping down on my head and destroyed those plans.

It caught me off guard, I tell you, and I still haven't recovered.  From some of the things that happened this week I don't know if recovery is a possibility.  It hasn't all been bad.  Maybe none of it was bad.

Here's a little clip from an adventure that happened yesterday.  I've decided that I no longer want a pet alligator.  I'm going to hold out for a mouse.

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