Not Quite Finished

This morning I was out for my bike ride that I take a few times a week. One of the places that I often ride through is a park that sits next to the Veteran’s Memorial park and the museum that is on the property. The park has a beautiful lake with a path that goes all around it, primarily for walkers, but also used by bike riders, skateboarders, and other exercise enthusiasts. It also borders a river that runs along its property and has plenty of places for people to fish off of – which is always being used.

Today, as I was riding, and later sitting by the river’s edge outside of the Veteran’s museum, contemplating how beautiful God’s creation was, I got to thinking about how my generation, the Boomers, and the recent Gen Zers and Gen Alphas are so very different. I realize that when we were growing up the same was true about us and the generations before us, particularly the Greatest Generation (according to Tom Brokaw) and the one before that. They probably thought that everyone was a hippy, smoked pot, did drugs, had long hair, and wore weird clothes. And while many of us did, it wasn’t everyone who was like that. 

But the thing that really intrigued me this morning was that even though we projected a newness that those generations didn’t understand, we still had a war that had to be fought – Vietnam. And even after that, many of us fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yes, we looked and acted differently. And yes, we smoked pot and did drugs. But we still had engrained in us the respect for our elders from previous generations due to the fact that we understood what it was like to lay down one’s life for the sake of a country. We lost friends, family members, and loved ones to the atrocities of war. We grieved and lamented over those loses. We fought politically to end those wars. Yet in the end, there was a pride and honor that went along with those times. There is a bond that cannot be fully expressed between the generations.

That is not so with the Gen Zers and Alphas. They have never had to fight for their country. They don’t know what it is like to see a brother or sister, or a mom or a dad, go off to fight in a foreign country – wondering if they will ever see them again. They don’t know the feeling of seeing a coffin coming home that holds a family member draped in an American flag. There doesn’t seem to be much national pride or loyalty encased in the new generation. All they know about war is what they see on television or their smart phones – the ones being fought by foreign countries against each other. For them it’s all about how much money can I make so I can live a privileged life in the country that my older family fought for. Seeing millions of illegals cross the southern borders to enjoy a life of privilege that others fought for is no big deal for them.

As I contemplated all of this today I tried to look at this through God’s eyes. What does He expect of me to be at peace with this? How do I respond to these newer generations that don’t have a shared experience of war and sacrifice? How do I engage in conversations with them and help them to expand their minds? And even deeper, how do I equate these physical wars with the spiritual ones that are being fought every day in America? Especially when the word ‘war’ is not one that they often use. For now, I have just avoided those discussions assuming at some point the very recent generations will grow up and mature to the point of respect for their elders. Yet at some point I’m sure that I will have to chime in. I just hope the Holy Spirit gives me the grace and compassion to navigate the conversation in a way that will bring glory to the Master.