A Sunday school teacher was telling her class of girls about how
the children of Israel carried things out of Egypt, and of how the
children of Israel carried the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and of
how the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea, and of how the
children of Israel built the temple. Finally one little girl interrupted
and asked, "Didn't the parents ever do anything in the Old
Testament?" We all know, of course that the parents were called
children because all of God's people are called children. One of the
things we know about children is that they tend to have conflict, and
this is often the case between the elder children called adults, and
the younger children called youth.
The battle of the ages has been a battle through the ages. The
one thing we know for sure about the younger generation is that it
will grow up to worry and complain about the younger generation.
This has been the case ever since Adam and Eve saw their children
going to the dogs. Ancient Assyrian tablets tell of the problems of
society with youth. Ancient Greeks complained about youths bad
manners and contempt for authority. A record from 450 B.C. says,
"Children are now tyrants and not servants of the household. They
no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their
parents, chatter before company, gobble up their food and tyrannize
their teachers."
Peter the monk wrote in 1274 A.D., "The world is passing
through troubled times. The young people of today think of nothing
but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age.
They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they alone knew
everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with
them." The poet has captured the whole history of adult and youth
relationships in these few lines-
My granddad, viewing earth's warm cogs,
Said things were going to the dogs;
His granddad in his house of logs
Swore things were going to the dogs;
His granddad in the Flemish bogs
Vowed things were going to the dogs;
His granddad in his old skin togs
Said thing were going to the dogs.
It is little wonder that man has not progressed morally and
spiritually with such a persistent pessimistic philosophy hanging
over the heads of every generation. A young person usually rises no
higher than the level of adult expectation, and as long as adults
expect them to go to the dogs many youth will remain slaves to their
mere animal nature. Since today's adults were yesterday's dogs we
could hardly expect things to be any different. This is why man can
never find a solution to his folly apart from the Gospel of Christ,
which can change human nature and send it climbing heavenward
rather than downward to the dogs. Man's natural tendency is
downward, and unless there is some factor introduced into his
nature, which is not available through any natural source, he can
never escape the vicious cycle of wasting his youth like a fool, and
then condemning the next generation for not seeing that they also
are being fools.
Many non-Christians recognize the follies of their youth, and
they are concerned that their children do not make the same
mistakes, but it is usually a futile effort. Some having tried
everything but Jesus have become total pessimists. W. H. Ireland,
for example, wrote,
All the world's a mass of folly,
Youth is gay, age melancholy;
Youth is spending, age is thrifty,
Mad at twenty, cold at fifty;
Man is naught but folly's slave,
From the cradle to the grave.
Most do not see things quite so dark as this, however, but they see
the world as at least half hopeless. Adults think that hopeless half is
the youth, and the youth think it is the adults. Christians ought to be
able to rise above this limited vision and see that though people of all
ages can be fools, so also people of all ages can be wise and saintly.
The Scripture says that your old men shall dream dreams and your
young men shall see visions. The ideal is when youth and adults are
one in their relationship to God and in receiving His revelation.
The Bible honors both the old and the young. God sees great
potential in both, and He has used both marvelously time and time
again to accomplish His will in history. You have the infant Moses,
the child Samuel, the teenage Joseph, the young man Daniel, the
middle age King David, and old Methuselah. From the cradle to the
grave all people are potential pearls in the treasure chest of God's
purpose. The Christian can see youth going to the dogs as has every
other generation, but he can also see that by the grace of God those
who receive Christ can surpass the older generation in godliness,
and in reaching the world with the Gospel. Christian adults must
recognize that they have not arrived. There is a great deal further
to go in making Christianity relevant in our modern world. Adults
must look to youth to do what they have not yet done. They must
encourage youth and even learn from them.
Youth has a marvelous ingenuity for developing new ways to be
unacceptable, but this ingenuity can be channeled right, and it can
be used to develop new ways of communicating God's Word to lost
people. A young person on the right track, who is captivated by the
person and truth of Christ can teach adults plenty. Paul knew this,
and that is why he chose a young man like Timothy to serve with
him, and to go back to Ephesus to work out the problems there.
Timothy had begun his service for Christ as a teenager. He has now
grown into manhood, but compared to the vast majority of early
church leaders he was still only a youth. Paul knew that the older
Christians of Ephesus would not easily submit to being taught by
young Timothy. That day was no different than any other. In fact,
early Christians watched youth with an even more critical eye than
we do today. Church leaders were expected to be older and more
mature. This put young Timothy at a disadvantage. Paul wrote to
Timothy and said in I Tim. 4:12, "Don't let anyone look down on
you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in
speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."
Paul's statement to Timothy abolishes adult domination in the
spiritual realm. Mere passing of time does not make one a better
Christian. It can even have the opposite effect. Age does not
indicate what ones quality of soul is. A teenager can be a far more
mature Christian than a 50 year old who found Christ at age 9, but
who remained on that level the rest of his life. Paul is saying that
youth dedicated to Christ can be an example worthy of being
imitated by those who are much older. It is possible for youth to
teach adults something about Christian commitment, character and
conduct.
This is a challenge that is greater than most youth can handle.
Edmund Burke said, "The arrogance of age must submit to be
taught by youth." This is nonsense unless the youth have, like
Timothy, demonstrated in practical ways their devotion to Christ. It
is only those young people who catch the vision of how important it
is to live for Christ now who can ever be teachers of adults. Youth
with a vision and a committed life to Christ can inspire the whole
church. Youth looks ahead and not back to the good old days like
older people tend to do. They have no grand old days, and so their
dreams are about the future and the good new days ahead that they
anticipate. This is an important outlook on life that the church
needs. It needs the youth's point of view to keep from being
discouraged.
The church needs the constant reminder to her youth that every
generation is a whole new world to conquer. Alexander the Great is
said to have wept at the early age of 29 because there were no more
worlds to conquer. This can never be the attitude of the Christian,
for every generation is a new world to conquer. Young people live
in a world that has just begun. They live in a world of vast millions
who are just beginning their own history. Christian young people
must see this and yield their lives to Christ to reach this new
generation. Young people reaching their generation would
challenge Christians of every age to reach out to their own
generation. Youth cannot reach the whole world, but if they reach
their generation they will set an example for all generations, and
that is God's will for Christian youth.
Paul said that Timothy was not to let others despise his youth,
but he may not have even considered the thought that Timothy
might despise his own youth. This is one of the major problems
among young people. They despise being young. Youth thinks of
their youth like a disease, and the quicker you can get over it the
better. They become fanatical in trying to become adults. If youth
are going to the dogs faster today than ever before, it is because they
are becoming more like adults faster than ever before. It use to be
that dating was something a young person looked forward to as a
step toward independent adulthood, but now they begin going
steady as juniors. Most of the status symbols of youth are adult
vices or possessions. Young people are conformists to the poor
patterns of life established by adults.
Sex problems are so great among young people simply because
they refuse to be young people. They despise being youth who have
to wait, grow and learn. They want everything the adult world has
now, and so they indulge in what was once for adults only. They
quickest way to draw a crowd of teens is to advertise that it is for
adults only. Adults know this too, that is why the most exploited
people in the world are teenagers. Millions of dollars are spent
every year in an attempt to get youth to choose adult vices.
Paul's advise to Timothy is relevant on this point, even though
he was not looking from this point of view. Adults despise youth
when they deprive it of its values. The Christian teenager must be
one who resists the pressure of being an adult. You have many
years to be adults, but only a short time to be a youth. Shakespeare
said that youth is a stuff that will not endure. You need to make the
most of your youth rather than try to eliminate it. It is to adulthood
what the foundation is to a building. A good youth will determine
one's values for the rest of life. The tragedies of millions of young
lives are summed up in this poem:
The spring is past, and yet it hath not sprung;
The fruit is dead, and yet the leaves are green;
My youth is gone, and yet I am but young.
This is the song of countless numbers of young people who
despise their youth and sought to indulge in all the vices of
adulthood. They do not realize the value of youth until they are
forced by their folly to bear the burdens of adult life. Young people
are to stay young as long as they can, and not let the world drag
them into adulthood. They are to use their youth for the glory of
God, and like Timothy, be an example of believers that will even
teach adults. If you will be youth for Christ, you will also be adults
for Christ.
It is one of the biggest mistakes that young people make when
they fail to realize they can be examples to adults. We always think
about adults being examples to the children, but it works both ways.
Back in 1959 a 13-year-old boy by the name of Robert Hill read of
how Dr. Schweitzer had started a work in Africa to heal the sick
blacks who had no doctor. He wanted to help, but he had so little.
He sent his little anyway. He sent one bottle of aspirin. The
newspaper got the story of how he sent this one bottle and it spread
all over Italy where he was because his father was in the U. S. Army
and was stationed there. This boys example of concern to do his
little part caused others to send their little as well. It ended up that
400 thousand dollars worth of medicine was sent to Dr. Schweitzer.
Little Robert was flown 7000 miles to visit Dr. Schweitzer in
Africa. He was given this reward because his example led to
thousands of people being cared for and cured. You do not have to
wait until you grow up to be a great example. You can be that now,
and you can lead adults to do greater things for God. God is looking
for anyone who will love His Son, and then show the love of His Son
to others.
A troop of Boy Scouts were on a summer hike in the woods when
they came upon an old abandon section of railroad track that
was about a block long. One by one the boys tried to walk the track
but soon lost their balance and fell off. Two boys were whispering
to each other, and then they suddenly shouted out that they could
walk the whole length of the track and not fall off once. The rest of
the boys teased them as big boasters and made it clear they doubted
that these two were any better than the rest of them. They
challenged the two to prove their boast, and that was what they were
waiting to hear. They jumped up on the track opposite of each other
and held out their hands, and with each helping the other balance
they walked to the end easily. They were clever boys, but the fact is,
all of us can be clever in life and do many things we could not do
alone by giving each other a helping hand.
Jesus gave His hand to us so we could walk through life
knowing that if we fall he would pick us up and help us keep our
balance. He wants us to do the same for each other and give a
helping hand. In 1860 just a few months before the Civil War began
a girl named Juliette was born in Savannah, Georgia. She came to
be called Daisy by her family and friends. Her father was a soldier
in the Confederate Army. Her mother was from the North, and so
her 3 uncles fought for the Union. This is what a Civil War is-a
family fighting itself. Daisy had 3 sisters and 2 brothers, and it was
a very happy home.
Her father was wounded by the Yanks, and her own uncle led
the bombardment that sent shells into her own back yard. But being
related to the victorious Yanks when they captured Savannah may
have saved their lives, for they were permitted to leave the city and
go to her grandfathers home in Chicago. As a young girl Daisy
loved to play games with a large group of children. She loved to use
her imagination and play helpful games like sewing things for a poor
family. She worked hard in school, but she loved to draw so much
she was often scolded for drawing in class. She had a need for
meeting needs. She saved another child from drowning. She would
visit a woman that others avoided because she had a skin disease
and she would read to her. She even helped her mother organize a
hospital. She used her youth to help others.
When she grew up she married William Low at the age of 26. It
was a marvelous wedding, but a grain of rice lodged in her ear and
she went completely deaf in that ear. She moved to England with
her new husband. At age 50 she felt useless after her husband died.
In 1911 she met Sir Robert Bowden-Powell who had founded the
Boy Scouts just 3 years earlier. His book on scouting for boys was a
great success, and the movement was growing rapidly. He
persuaded Daisy to start a company of girls and she did it. She
invited every girl she could on Saturday afternoon. Only 7 girls
came but they had a good time.
She went back to London and started a club for poor girls.
Then she came back to Savannah, Georgia where she began the Girl
Scouts Of America. She got other women involved and then moved
on to start other clubs. In 1913 Daisy returned to Savannah to
launch a national organization. She traveled widely to get the
movement to spread across the country. In 1915 the first Girl Scout
Convention was held in Washington, D. C. She did so much for girls
because recognized their potential. She said, "The angel Gabriel
couldn't make them take what they don't want." She was successful
because she gave them what they wanted and what was good for
them.
Daisy died on Jan. 17, 1927. She was buried in her Scout
uniform. The nation honored her by naming a ship after her and in
1948 issued a commemorative stamp for her. Thirteen million girls
have been trained around the world to be better citizens and better
adults because of one girl who did not despise her youth. History is
filled with stories of people who used their youth wisely
and as a result became adults who made a major difference in the
world. Don't waste this precious resource that so quickly passes
away. Use it wisely and do not let any despise your youth, especially
you. Dedicate it to the Lord Jesus Christ, and pray that God will
make you an example of such value that even adults can learn from
you.
