At 33, Jesus had become man, died for the sins of men, arisen from the dead and ascended back to his Father. These days at 33 many folks haven’t left home yet. Consider this one statistic: In 1960, 77 percent of women and 65 percent of men completed all the major transitions into adulthood by age thirty. These transitions include leaving home, finishing school, becoming financially independent, getting married, and having a child. By 2000, only 46 percent of woman completed these transitions by age thirty, and only 31 percent of men. In short, among thirty-somethings less than one-third are done with school, out of the house, married with kids, and have a job that pays the bills. “Adultolescence” is the new normal. These statistics come from Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will, by Kevin DeYoung (Moody Press). Consider that these statistics are ten years old. I bet things have only gotten worse since them.
Now I realize these statistics may be skewed because today many are not getting married at all, or ever finishing school, or, for that matter, having a child. But really, isn’t it true that this generation doesn’t feel called to accomplish anything? When I was twenty-one, I was married, in the Navy and living more or less independently in California. Within a couple of years I had a couple of kids. Now I hadn’t really completed my education.
I know it isn’t always easy to make a decision. I was in the Navy for 11 years. I got to know a lot of lawyers and knew that I could do what they were doing, but being in the Navy was easy. The world outside seemed frightening. One day my wife and I just talked about it and decided “let’s do it.” We were more than half way to a comfortable Navy retirement. But we took a step. Rose got an education and supported us when I went to law school and became the Florida Gator you all love today. It took awhile to learn God’s will for our lives and, I guess to some extent, we’re still learning that. But the point is that you can’t just sit under a tree and wait for God’s will to become clear. We learn that discerning his will be starts and stops. We take a step, then maybe another. Sometimes we have to back track but at all times we are moving discovering what works and what doesn’t work so well. Lot’s of times it isn’t that his will isn’t clear… it just isn’t easy.
We are blessed in my church with lots of young people who seem to have it pretty much together: married with children and already an important part of the church; but they seem to be the exception. Here’s how DeYoung describes his generation: “We’re not consistent. We’re not stable. We don’t stick with anything. We aren’t sure we are making the right decisions. Most of the time, we can’t even make decisions. And we don’t follow through. All of this means that as Christian young people we are less fruitful and less faithful than we ought to be.”
Perhaps part of the problem is that as a society we have become obsessed with providing safety nets for everyone. If you don’t succeed, we (the government) will take care of you. We want to make sure everyone is “free to find themselves.” As DeYoung says, “Perhaps your free spirit needs less freedom and more faithfulness. Maybe your emerging adulthood should . . . I don’t know, emerge.”
My fear is this “Adultolescence” may be spreading, not just to the youngest of our society, but upward to the older folks as well. God has a specific plan and will for each of us. It won’t come in a letter, a blinding revelation or a prophesy spoken over us. It will come by doing something. He honors each little step of faith by making our direction clearer. But we have to take a step, sitting and watching others walk by won’t do it.
JUST DO SOMETHING and be blessed.
Nick
Be the first to reply