What Will Our Youth and Young Adults Make Happen Next?
There has been plenty of chatter among youth and young adults concerning a recent happening online. Consider these words from Jesus:
Those who love their life will lose it, Jesus says. And those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
What does that mean? For most of us – at least relative to the rest of the world, and at least by material standards – there’s a lot of life to love. Should we feel guilty about feeling joy when things are good, celebrating when life works out? Are we to walk around in misery every day?
To get at the meaning of this odd phrase, let’s consider a recent happening: the “Kony 2012” online video. The video is about Joseph Kony, the ruthless African warlord who committed the most terrible atrocities against children and families in Africa. He recruited, as many of you will know, children into his Lord’s Resistance Army, forcing them to fight and kill their own parents and relatives. His so-called Army committed rapes, murders, and abductions. Joseph Kony deserves to be prosecuted for these crimes against humanity. The video, created by an American charity, was trying to raise awareness, to stir the international community into doing something. Awareness it has certainly raised: the video has been watched more than 84 million times online. It has prompted debate in governments and in households and even on our Eastern Synod Facebook page. People have begun sending money and raising with their politicians the issue of what will be done. All of this is great; all of this is important.
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