If it Feels Good, ___ ___
I’m a child of the 60’s. I don’t say that with pride. Oh, there are good things about it, but many not so good things. It was a rebellious time for teenagers and college-age kids. Partly because of the Vietnam War that escalated during this decade. But also because the “greatest generation” of our parents (the World War II crowd), after growing up with little and then sacrificing during the war, lived in a booming age that followed WW2 and wanted their kids to have more. A somewhat spoiled generation grew up in the 50’s and by the 60’s they were restless, rejecting many of their parents’ values, and also hating this undeclared war the older generation had roped us into.
The result? What has been called the Me Generation. Free love, drugs becoming more prevalent, long hair, bell-bottomed jeans, protests, Rock and Roll music, and a mantra of “If it feels good, do it!” Now, as this generation, my generation, grows older, many have migrated back to the values we rejected in our youth. Many go to the churches they wanted nothing to do with back then. Possibly because the proverb of Solomon and its principle holds true, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
Good for us. But the story doesn’t end there. The Baby Boomers had children, and our children had children. The wreckage of our generation left shrapnel with collateral damage all over the playing field. Very few of our parents experienced divorce, but that all changed with the Me Generation. Divorce did its damage. And it goes way beyond that, obviously. Yes, many came back to the church and the Bible, but both had been abandoned for years and a new value system impacted our kids and grandkids. Now it's not all my generation’s fault. We had plenty of help, and the dynamics are never simple, many things impacting us, our kids, and our grandkids.
All of that said, we now live in a culture that pits the Woke people against the Bible-believing people. The values of the Woke crowd have turned things upside down. The term “Woke” originated from the African American vernacular meaning “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination.” I’m in favor of that. But it has evolved into much more. What seems to make common sense, things like a man and woman being married as the natural standard, are being rejected. A baby born as a male continuing as a male, a baby born as a female continuing as a female doesn’t work if it doesn’t make this cultural Woke crowd happy. I’ve written about it before. If happiness defines all we do and believe, we have abandoned the Bible as our source of beliefs and values.
But lest you think I blame this Woke dilemma on my kids and grandkids, remember what I’ve said above. My generation started the ball rolling. Even the previous generation did their part. And the dynamics are complicated. Many factors are involved (the education system, God-dishonoring-music’s impact, television and movies, etc.). Although it has been a spider’s web of things, the answer, the thing that can get us back on track is not so complicated. Instead of “If it feels good, do it!” we need a new mantra that guides us, such as, “If it honors the Lord, do it!” The Apostle Paul once said, “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me – practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9). Paul and the other apostles have left us instructions, guidance for how to do things that honor the Lord. Let’s pay attention to that and respond accordingly.
Cross Point: "I have suffered the loss of all things, counted as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not with a righteousness of my own from the Law, but that which comes through faith” (Phil. 3:8, 9).
The result? What has been called the Me Generation. Free love, drugs becoming more prevalent, long hair, bell-bottomed jeans, protests, Rock and Roll music, and a mantra of “If it feels good, do it!” Now, as this generation, my generation, grows older, many have migrated back to the values we rejected in our youth. Many go to the churches they wanted nothing to do with back then. Possibly because the proverb of Solomon and its principle holds true, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
Good for us. But the story doesn’t end there. The Baby Boomers had children, and our children had children. The wreckage of our generation left shrapnel with collateral damage all over the playing field. Very few of our parents experienced divorce, but that all changed with the Me Generation. Divorce did its damage. And it goes way beyond that, obviously. Yes, many came back to the church and the Bible, but both had been abandoned for years and a new value system impacted our kids and grandkids. Now it's not all my generation’s fault. We had plenty of help, and the dynamics are never simple, many things impacting us, our kids, and our grandkids.
All of that said, we now live in a culture that pits the Woke people against the Bible-believing people. The values of the Woke crowd have turned things upside down. The term “Woke” originated from the African American vernacular meaning “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination.” I’m in favor of that. But it has evolved into much more. What seems to make common sense, things like a man and woman being married as the natural standard, are being rejected. A baby born as a male continuing as a male, a baby born as a female continuing as a female doesn’t work if it doesn’t make this cultural Woke crowd happy. I’ve written about it before. If happiness defines all we do and believe, we have abandoned the Bible as our source of beliefs and values.
But lest you think I blame this Woke dilemma on my kids and grandkids, remember what I’ve said above. My generation started the ball rolling. Even the previous generation did their part. And the dynamics are complicated. Many factors are involved (the education system, God-dishonoring-music’s impact, television and movies, etc.). Although it has been a spider’s web of things, the answer, the thing that can get us back on track is not so complicated. Instead of “If it feels good, do it!” we need a new mantra that guides us, such as, “If it honors the Lord, do it!” The Apostle Paul once said, “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me – practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9). Paul and the other apostles have left us instructions, guidance for how to do things that honor the Lord. Let’s pay attention to that and respond accordingly.
Cross Point: "I have suffered the loss of all things, counted as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not with a righteousness of my own from the Law, but that which comes through faith” (Phil. 3:8, 9).
Posted in Cross Points