How on earth can we be silent?? By A.J.S, written today (Feb. 14th, 2009)

“How can we be silent?”

We have been called the mosaic generation. We take information on one subject from a million different sources and piece together our own version of reality.
What’s scary is how much of that reality is actually just plain fantasy- wishful thinking mixed with lies that ends up burning us eventually.
There are over six billion people in the world, roughly. And one third of that number are people ages thirteen to nineteen. That’s a LOT of teenagers. In America, we have thousands- millions!- of people. Again, over 1/3 of which are? Guess who… Teenagers like you and I. We are a part of that number. Even those of us who make up the 2,000 WPHS students and the handful that belong to private schools or are home schooled in Woodland Park and beyond.

Teenagers are the focal part of most of the advertising done in America today. We are the world’s largest commercial buyers. Every day we see things like clothing, magazines, candy, video games- things we just HAVE to have. The more we buy, the more they make… The adults are totally getting rich off of us. Scary thought, huh?
But did you know? Have you realized? We are the world’s next leaders- from the small: teachers, policemen, pastors, office workers, firefighters; to the large: President, millionaire, famous actor or pop star, a general in the army, head of FBI. All of them were 16 at one point in their life. And I’ll bet they have the pictures to prove it.
You, as a teenager in the good ‘ol US of A, have literally nothing in your way- there is nothing stopping you from becoming the person you’ve always dreamed you could be. The sky isn’t even the limit anymore. You could be the first person to step foot on Mars, or to travel at the speed of light, or to visit the sun (although I wouldn‘t recommend it, personally).
Woah. Creepy thought, isn’t it? One day us teenagers will literally take over the world- stepping into the places left by the current adult generation. Think about it. Do you understand how much POWER we have, even here in a tiny little town of 7,000? That‘s some kind of crazy. Our parents have the future in their hands. I wonder how many of them realize that?
I wonder how many of us realize that?

But my intention of writing this isn’t to daunt you, though you may feel a bit daunted- as I do. My intention is to ask you something.
If we are the future, what will that future be like? As C.S Lewis said:
“…taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature; either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with it’s fellow-creatures, and with itself….Each of us at each moment is progressing from one state to the other.”
Are you starting to get it? The world hangs in balance- on a slender thread. And only the very illogical person would believe that the state of their inner ‘creature’, as Lewis puts it, only affects them and not anyone else.
Here is my challenge to you, dear reader: your life is what you make it. YOU are who YOU make YOURSELF. We are the hope, the future of America and the world- how can we be silent any longer? How can we keep it all inside? Why are we, the most powerful generation the world has ever seen, so scared of speaking the name of Jesus?
Shout it out! Speak it from the rooftops! Spread it across the nations! Live your live, every moment, for your maker and creator! You are a new creation in Christ, his beloved, his cherished, his delight. So live as if you are! Take hold of this destiny he has offered you, and in turn reach out to others with the same gift. Cast off your old life, your old complacency, as you would a dirty Kleenex or a plateful of liver and lung sausage (haha, but seriously)!
Let us not be called the “Mosaic”, the impressionable, the idiot generation any longer- but the Jesus generation. The generation on FIRE for God, the generation who has changed lives young and old, the generation who has fully embraced their purpose and CHANGED THE WORLD. You have so much potential. Why not reach out and change a little bit of the world as you know it? Let’s give the adults something real to talk about!!