Thirsty for Leadership

Are you thirsty for leadership? Over the past few months I have been learning and being reminded of things about my own generation, and the generations that are following mine. We are thirsty for leadership, the kind that sticks around and does what is right and good.

When I went to the Florida Annual Conference in June I heard from someone my age portray the general attitudes and beliefs of my generation. The one thing that struck me was that he mentioned how broken this generation is by its experience with leadership. This generation knows all too well the deterioration of institutions. We have seen American presidents lie, cheat, steal, and kill, all in the name of "upholding the Constitution of the United States." We have seen our parents divorce, we have gone through broken public schools, we have very little assurance of Social Security, even less assurance of a good career and the American dream.

You can argue against Social Security, say that the American dream comes at the expense of slave labor and sweat shops, politicians lie, and all sorts of things can be said. But the fact still remains that the things were were told were good, and reliable have been yanked away or left us standing alone in the proverbial shopping mall too many times to be forgotten and forgiven. Many in our generation are embittered, cynical, lost, and hopeless.

I refuse. I will not, can not live in a world where the hope of Jesus Christ's work on this earth is ignored and forgotten. He came to start the new creation. We are in the in-between times right before the New Heaven and New Earth are going to come and take away the evils and corruption of this world. I have that hope, but it overflows into this world as well. Christians are already in that world, but we live here. We have a house in New Jerusalem but we pay homestead taxes on our residence here.

So the question is how do we begin to make things better? Do we envision a world where one day life will be cherished and sacred? How do we start down that road? How do you teach society how to honor life?

I hear people talk about what is the right thing to do, how something should be done. I hear commercials on the radio say that their organization is dedicated to a just and more equitable society. The truth is, everyone wants a world where its safe to leave your door unlocked, where people are polite and friendly at the grocery store, where neighbors care about you, your family, and your property. Police and authorites would probably prefer corporations to be honest book keepers if it meant more Americans had secure jobs, which might lead to less people commiting crimes out of despiration. Waitresses might appreciate more Social Security if it means old ladies would leave a better tip so they could afford to put more food on the table at home. And teachers would appreciate it if parents would realize that public education is not a substitute for parenting and can never replace the impact of a parent reading to their child, helping with homework, and heaven forbid actualy assigning their own homework to add to and supplement their education at school.

This is sort of what I am talking about. Ways of thinking about society and how the actions or inactions of people affects the whole society on an individual basis. One person's greed in a corporation leads to the laying off of thousands or the fact that they no longer have retirement benefits. How are things like this fought, and how do we start making it better?