I believe God has His hand on you. We have never seen a generation like yours. This year, your numbers will surpass those of my generation, the Baby Boomers, to become the largest generation to ever walk this planet.
Your generation is a caring, socially responsible generation. Unlike my generation, who protested everything, your generation is trying to fix things. I deeply admire you for that.
You are trying to clean up the environment, make energy-efficient light bulbs, and produce cars that run cleaner. You want smog-free cities, clean water, and recyclable everything. I applaud you, my friends. Yours is a great and mighty generation. You will go farther, faster, and do more in this world than I could imagine in two lifetimes.
Being part of a great generation carries great responsibilities. It is no accident that you were born into this world at this time. God not only has a plan for your generation, but also for your life. In fact, yours might be the generation that ushers in the second coming of Christ.
You have the potential to finish translating and bringing the gospel into every known language. With your knowledge of technology, there is not a place on the planet that can hide from you.
God has put a desire in this generation to do something good. Yes, it is good to provide clean water to remote villages where children are dying because of contaminated water. But don’t stop at doing good. Keep going until you do something great, something with eternal ramifications. Give us clean water, but then use that good thing to introduce people to Jesus. That is when your efforts will shift from good to great. I want this generation to become a great generation. To that end, I want to remind you of a few things:
- Your life is not your own (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). You have been bought with a price, an incredible one at that. I do not know if anyone told you, but when you decided to follow Jesus, you gave up your rights. That is why we call Him Lord. Being a Christian is all about denying yourself, picking up a cross, and following Him. But that is the mystery of kingdom life. When you give up your rights for a relationship with Jesus, you find yourself
- You are here for such a time as this (Esther 4:14). Esther found herself at the intersection of purpose and destiny. She was given the choice to be the one to save the Jews from destruction or watch God raise up their salvation from somewhere else. With fear and trembling, Esther accepted the task and did what God asked. You, too, are placed in this time of history for such a time as this. It is your destiny to bring salvation unto the world.
- God is doing a new thing through you (Isaiah 43:19). Old wineskins cannot hold new wine. Much of what my generation created worked for us, and God used it, but it is a new day. Our ways are not working as they used to. That causes us to struggle, because these are the only ways we know. So I ask as you create new ways to spread the gospel—ways that seem so foreign to us—that you not forget the past generation who built the churches, sent out global workers, and gave their time and resources to train and educate you so you would have a foundation on which to build. We will do our best to pray for and encourage you as we pass the mantle on to your generation.
I cannot imagine what kind of world my grandchildren will grow up in. I pray that they will be part of the greatest generation ever: the one fully dedicated to God.