Why Such a Bleak Future Expected among Young People

Proverbs 6:6-11 (ESV)
⁶  Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.
⁷  Without having any chief, officer, or ruler,
⁸  she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.
⁹  How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?
¹⁰  A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,
¹¹  and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

I read a couple of teen novels lately. Both presented a dystopian future. Both novels are wildly popular among the teens. It helped me understand what is going on among a lot of young people their age and somewhat older. They are living in the moment because their vision of the future is bleak. 

Our culture today is creating many people in the younger generations who do not wait nor do they want to work for what they are enjoying. They spend what they have right away. They do not invest in education or relationships. They are sexually active without any commitment. They are in huge debt and depending upon government handouts to continue their present lifestyle. They are irresponsible in their living. They are creating the dystopian future I read of in the teen novels.

There was a time when people said, "Study hard; work hard, pray hard and you will find yourself doing much better than you could imagine." Why have we stopped saying that? Why aren't we preparing for a better future? Have we lost the value of hard work?

I see this among many of the young ministers too. They don't want to go to school to learn the disciplines of those who came before them. They have no interest in Greek and Hebrew. They don't care about solid hermeneutics. They don't want to hear the history of the church's past. They believe that they can start a new church and have thousands coming within a few years without studying any of this. They don't care that those who follow them have a weaker theology than they have. They don't care that they haven't made disciples of Christ. They want to be successful without the baggage of biblical standards of excellence.

This is all a huge example of selfishness when you think about it. They want things they have never earned. They seek blessings without the grace of Christ. They want what they want now without drinking from the cup they have been given.

Maybe that's why many of these churches started by those who didn't prepare preach messages to young people which demands no commitment. These messages tell them that God has wonderful plans for them without any commitment on their part. In fact, they can leave their lifestyle unscathed by the presence of Christ in their lives. They can continue to be as sinful as they want because God's love will cover it all.

I wonder if these people are falling away as fast as they come to believe in this fairy godmother god. This god requires nothing and gives nothing but the best. How long do they live this way before they realize the emptiness that this produces? And when they do, where do they turn?

Maybe they consider a dystopian future. This is the emptiest future they can imagine. It reveals the acts of the flesh without the grace of God. It hopes in a savior who will change this future.

O yes, these teen novels do hope in a savior. This savior comes to rescue them from their future without any commitment on their part. When will anyone learn that this is the reason for such a bleak future? Changing the moment will not change anything as long as the flesh remains in control.

Have you ever heard of someone who won the lottery who was bankrupt in a few years? Their millions are gone. They have no friends. They never changed the way they lived and thus reaped the same future they already had despite a respite given by millions of dollars. The problem was never the amount of money they had. Their problem was how they treated the money. The flesh did not change so the future followed the same path.

But I imagine a much different future for people I want them to completely commit themselves to God and His disciplines. These committed people seek Him in the good times as well as in the bad. They always prepare by obeying Him in every day. They pray, believe and work. They see a much better future than they could imagine without God.

Yes, I know that is swimming upstream in this culture. I know that it will not fill my church like telling them of a God who loves without any commitment expected from them. I know that it takes hard work to produce a culture of people whose whole outlook is changed from bleak to bright. I know but I believe it is the only true future which is better than the one they have imagined.