“I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.”
– Ezekiel 22:30
Hi James and Ellen,
Your generation of guys and gals – which your grandpaa places between 1986 and 2001, who initially were called gen Ys or mosaics – but who are now being referred to as being millennials, have been given the moniker of being the iY generation. Your generation has seriously taken on using the Internet, iChat, iPod, iPad, iTune, iBook, iPhone and iMovie. You download only what you think that you need to know. You use Facebook to post photos that invariably have you someplace in the photos. Your listening attention span is about ten minutes. Parents and teachers of your generation have accepted, affirmed and approved you to where you believe that you can be instant world changers. You are today being convinced that you are a leader and winner. You are not being exposed today to failing and losing. You believe that you have the right to confront any guy or gal at any time about anything no matter what the age or title is of the guy or gal who you are confronting. You believe that no guy or gal has the right to criticize you. Your generation is being underpinned to become the most influential generation that has existed so far on planet Earth. Your grandpaa is a fan of your generation. Your grandpaa enjoys being a high school short term youth ministry team Project Leader. Kids who are your age innately know how to engage in a cross-cultural setting with a kid who they have never met. Kids who are your age – who are Christ-followers, know intuitively that church is a commitment to live 24/7 a God-centered life versus being a walled structure were scheduled and formal services are held. Kids who are your age – who are Christ-followers, have internalized an instinctive acceptance that their ‘church’ community is in constant flux – that their ‘church’ family is who they are with at any given moment. Kids who are your age are holding each other accountable – in a reflexive way, to choices that they make. Kids who are your age are sustaining multi-communities through using whatever technologically created and marketed tools/toys that they have access to at any given moment. Kids who are your age are formulating world views through forays to other countries where other cultural and societal norms and mores can be observed. Kids who are your age are now reaching the moment of reality. Kids who are your age are now finding out that the rosy painted future that had been painted to them by their dads, mas, teachers, . . . to look forward to is in fact filled with potholes and pitfalls.
What will you do when the day arrives when you find out that living life on planet Earth is not as easy as you have been told by dads, mas, teachers, . . . that it is going to be for you? Your grandpaa believes that the generation before your generation – which is called gen X or busters, produced a backdrop for kids in your generation to escape into when reality hits them over the head. News reports, songs, movies, lifestyles, etc. all point to a morality decline. Self-centered, environmentally conditioned lifestyles appear to be to your grandpaa the drivers for kids today to be given a pass for narcissistic behavior. What are you doing that makes you happy? Do you do things that you think will make yourself happy. Do you do things that you think will make guys, gals and kids happy? Do you do things that you know will make God happy? If the immorality spiral continues to head downward, your grandpaa believes that the land area that is known as the United States is facing a city of Jerusalem moment when . . .
The guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem shortly before 587 B.C. had reached absolute moral degradation. Ezekiel overtly details in his Ezekiel Book – in Ezekiel 22, what was happening in the city of Jerusalem that had God really upset with His specially chosen people guys and gals. Extremely detestable practices – such as killing their own kids, mistreating the elderly, orphans and widows, oppressing the aliens, making and worshipping personalized idol gods, desecrating God’s assigned day of rest – the Sabbath Day, slandering each other, performing lewd acts, having reprehensible relationships with whoever whenever, accepting bribes and charging excessive fees or interest, all had become the norm to living in the city of Jerusalem. This should sound familiar to you right now. Even though your grandpaa thinks that a jury made the only decision that it could make with the evidence that the jury was given to make their decision, your grandpaa – along with a lot of other people, really thinks that a gal just may have gotten away with having something to do with causing her daughter’s death and/or with the disposal of her daughter’s body. There are more and more substantiating reports of the real possibility of governmental driven ‘death panels’ being formulated that will make the decision whether or not an elderly ill guy or gal continues to live or . . . how many kids – or guy and gals, do you know who cannot live without their hi-tech idol on or next to them? There is a lot of push back today – especially from kids your age, of your country’s societal expectations that a guy, gal or kid needs to sit through a Sunday morning church service in order for the guy, gal or kid to be seen as being a ‘Christian’. Your grandpaa believes that lying has become an accepted norm that is used to escape the consequences of violating an established law or directive. Verse 30 explains what has really gotten God so upset, ““I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.” How are you standing in your ‘land’s’ gap as your country continues to . . .
Ezekiel 22 (1172)