Stephen Altrogge wrote a great article on “Why Cynicism Might Kill A Generation”
I have a favorite T-Shirt that says: “This was supposed to be the future. Where is my jetpack?”
I’m a twenty-something and my generation is one that has seen many of the idealistic promises of the last century come largely unfulfilled (jetpacks? flying cars? world peace? freedom and justice for all?).This means we’ve turned out as a pretty cynical generation, and we’ve made it something to be proud about. We’ve realized that everyone is trying to sell us something, that everything is product placement,,,
But the problem is that this cynicism might just kill our generation.
I have to admit as a twenty-something myself that cynicism is pretty seductive. When you’re cynical you don’t get hurt easily because you assume that everything is hopeless to begin with. Cynicism is a shield protecting us from disappointment. We don’t want our dreams thrown out like New Coke or NASA’s Space Shuttle Program so we just don’t have dreams anymore.
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When we cynically assume that every good venture will ultimately fail, we miss out on rejoicing where we should rejoice. We can be so guarded that when we see God at work, we think, “Well there are still a million things that can go wrong…” instead of simply seeing what God has done and rejoicing.
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Though we live in a broken world, evidences of God at work are all around us and we glorify God when we rightly rejoice when we see him at work.
Mighty Anchor 