Monday.....Miscellaneous.....Youth

You've probably never heard of "President Max Frost." It was 1968 and America was in turmoil. Wild In The Streets was a popular movie in the youth culture. In it, rock star Max Frost was enlisted by a politician in his campaign for the Senate. Frost agreed but added to the campaign that the voting age should be dropped to fourteen. The power of the youth vote turned into a monster and Frost then ran successfully for president and proceeded to make the mandatory age for retirement 30 and sent those over 35 to "retirement homes." One line of his in the movie was What do you ask a 60 year old man-do you want your wheelchair to face the sun, or do you want it to face the other way? I was 18 at the time and probably agreed with the sentiment. The movie ended, as I recall, as Frost turned 35 all too quickly and found himself in the predicament he created. Five years after the movie, I had returned from the Army and was standing in line at a keg of beer at a college party when someone behind said of me Who's the old guy? I'm 60 now. You probably picture me as hobbling along with a nice new set of teeth waiting for Saturday night and Lawrence Welk! OK, I am a Welky but, listen to me you young whippersnappers, (yawn)...I forgot what I was going to say. Anyway...my point is that youth is fleeting. Yesterday's blog was titled In Youth We Learn. This came from a quote from a 19th century Austrian writer Marie Ebner-Eschenbach (no I wasn't there to hear it) In youth we learn, in age we understand. Common sense should tell one that being new to all discussions, having only a few years input, having little experience with discerning the authentic from the fake, and being without the advantage, yes the advantage, of making errors to not only learn from but develop a healthy habit of holding all things up to scrutiny, that one should, at the very least, have patience before throwing in one's lot with any ideology and burning bridges behind.  Even the Apostle Paul took three years in Arabia to sort out what he was learning from the Holy Spirit against what he formerly had dedicated his life to. There is a tendency to want to jump into the fray. The older son in the film Mrs. Miniver is a good example of this as he returned from college with the grandest designs for improving the world only to find out that the problems were much more involved than the spirited debate on campus would have it. Worse yet, philosophies cemented in one's mind after hearing one professor or speakers from one perspective can stifle true inquiry. I don't say this to discourage you but to motivate you even more, for the clearer understanding of an issue gives the more fulfillment in trying to propagate it later. Conversely, we can see in the recent youth movement for Barack Obama where the arguments are shallow, short and easily turn to frustration when confronted by logic and common sense. You have had some disadvantages, one being that if raised in many of our our public school systems, you missed, in your history classes, the essence of America, for those who rule curriculums today are obsessed with destroying the heroes of yesterday because they obviously feel no relationship to those who came before them. The errors, even the horrors of others in this world are often softened so as to not make American history seem something to be excessively proud of.  You went to college where the criticism of America has evolved into a professional assault. When the movers and shakers of this world found that  today's youth have money to spend they targeted you with unrelenting advertising for possessions, gadgets and styles. You won't fully see this until the lure of happiness at the end of a battery charger is more clearly shown as a never ending quest to find a new toy. I saw many of these baubles (a word that would have been used in earlier centuries) disappear into thin air in my own life but there is no returning to youth to make different decisions and I wouldn't want to anyway for God, in His mercy, has given blessings that I would not trade. You were born into an age of tumult. The chaos today often cannot be discerned because there is little foundation to compare it to and few standards in education to cast moorings upon even if one wanted to.  My advice to you is to picture yourself ten years from now, should the Lord will it, the family you will have and the responsibilities. You will look at your children as I did our son. You will watch them grow and seek to protect them from vanities and dangers, and, yes, trivialities. You are now where they will be. Your perspective will indeed change on many things and you may have regrets. You may not live in a free country and your children may be more wards of the state than perpetuators of freedom and liberty. You will either look at your generation as they gained power as one that failed...or one that showed up to meet the challenges, great as they are. You are being called upon to uphold what previous generations sacrificed greatly for. Most importantly, Christians who have gone on and now see the Lord of all creation, wait for you...and me, where all the peer pressure that assails us today will be seen as worthless.