The Heads Up On My Generation
Sunday after church I went over to my best friend’s house and we got into a discussion about the sermon on Sunday (I’ll post the podcast in a future blog once it’s posted to the church website) and we were talking about how great it was and why some people in our church might not have liked it for many different reasons, but somehow I went off on a tangent about my peers at school and how they’ve beaten me down so much just over the course of one school year. By the end I had started talking about my parents and my family and was crying in the middle of my best friend’s kitchen with her whole family trying to comprehend what I was saying.
I have been told that my generation is so screwed up and so apathetic. But ya know what?? I’ve also been told that my generation of Christians is going to be the group that causes a mass revival. Because we’re ready to stand up for our Lord. It is partly due to our apathy, but we try our hardest to say the right things and we don’t give up just because someone says something bad about our Christian morals. (See?? Apathy; we don’t care what people have to say. Perseverance; we’re never giving up!) While I have been beaten down emotionally (and, in a way, spiritually) by my peers, I feel that I have been able to grow from those “attacks” so that I can prepare myself for the next ones to come my way.
This leads me to explain the Rebelution… The link to the blog is over in my Blog Roll, but I’ll post the link to the main site here for double effect. (http://www.therebelution.com)
The official definition of the ‘rebelution’ is “a teenage rebellion against low expectations.” When you look around today, our culture does not expect much of us young people. We are not only expected to do very little that is wise or good, but we’re expected to do the opposite. Our media-saturated youth culture is constantly reinforcing lower and lower standards and expectations.
The word ‘rebelution’ is a combination of the words “rebellion” and “revolution.” So it carries a sense of an uprising against social norms. But in this case, it’s not a rebellion against God-established authority, but against the low expectations of our society. It’s a refusal to be defined by our ungodly, rebellious, and apathetic culture. Actually, we like to think of it as rebelling against rebellion.
And it’s exciting, because the Rebelution has become a type of counter-cultural youth movement among young people from around the world, who are not only rejecting the lies of popular youth culture, but they’re returning to biblical and historical levels of character and competence.
In 1 Timothy 4:12, the Apostle Paul tells Timothy, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” In other words, as young people we are called to be exemplary in all areas of life. Our generation is falling incredibly short of that calling. Instead of serving as the launching pad of life, the teen years are seen as a vacation from responsibility. We call it the “myth of adolescence.” And the Rebelution is all about busting that myth.
Our battle cry is just three words, but it’s an explosive concept: Do Hard Things. That’s it. And “do hard things” is a mentality. It’s a mentality that flies right in the face of low expectations. The world says, “You’re young, have fun!” It tells us to “obey your thirst” and “just do it.” Or it tells us, “You’re great! You don’t need to exert yourself.” But those kinds of mindsets sabotage character and competence.
Do Hard Things is just the opposite. It’s how we build character and competence. It won’t drop to meet the low expectations, it won’t just do what comes easily, and it won’t become complacent. It applies no matter who you are or what level you’re on, because there’s always something harder to do, something that will take you outside your comfort zone and cause you to grow.
The Rebelution is made up of three fundamental parts. We’ve talked about character and competence. The third is collaboration. It’s not enough for us to be individual exceptions. We have to create a counterculture. We do that by networking and encouraging one another in our common cause. That’s what the Rebelution has become. When you have a community of young people committed to doing hard things for the glory of God and the good of others, that’s an incredibly powerful thing.
The Rebelution presents the youth of today (all across the world) with the challenge of stepping up and staking a claim on their faiths. If you’re going to the Dallas Rebelution Conference, I’ll be there. If you see me, stop me and say hi! I am beyond excited for the conference, I should be getting my book soon. Just thinking about all the possibilities and opportunities God is placing in my life is incredible. Thank you, Lord, I am blessed beyond measure. Have a wonderful weekend! Toodles!
-Bee-
