Crying in the wilderness

At a funeral I attended today, the preacher said something like this -

we need to learn to face that which is real and not drug away the pain of life

- it's a paraphrase, not exact, but I think the message is accurate and I know it is powerful.

I felt anger today as I contemplated this death, why does this generation (obviously not everyone in it) live in such emptiness? Why do they try to drug away reality... I'm not talking about any one person, but when I look across our culture I am saddened... At the emptiness in the lives of the twenty-somethings, not all of them, certainly not all, but WAY TOO MANY!

why don't they get it? why don't they see that He wants lives of fullness for them? why can't they become as passionate about Him as they become about their desire to mask their emptiness with the seeking of pleasure and status?

no wonder Jesus wept... no wonder Jesus came...

I am so sorry... it is so sad to see this pain and death, and the pain that pervades such empty lives. Oh, and by the way, my generation was no better... we all are struggling with the war we are in, Jesus weeps at the war, Jesus came to bring us a peace that pleasure and status cannot provide... I am not angry at the people, I am angry at the war we are in where the Enemy seeks to direct us to ourselves as the center of the world... the solution to this emptiness must be shown...

this generation must be shown the love of God is unconditional, unlike ours - the NFL banner verse (John 3:16-17) tell us Jesus did not come to condemn but to save... a good friend said this recently "we must be in the business of showing people we love them, not in making projects out of them"

the problem is that we are trying to make projects out of people to change their behavior, this is treating the symptom, the disease is an empty heart... Jesus came to give them meaning... to fill the heart...