Who Are You Calling Childish?

Working in the youth ministry for the last year, I have come to realize how drastically we as adults underestimate the intelligence of Children, especially adolescents. I was talking with one of my 13 year old boys the other day, and he made a comment that caught my attention. In observing the flaky attendance that has become endemic in our congregation, he shared his feelings that whenever he looked around and saw that people were missing, it made him feel like what we were doing was 'lame'. I've battled this same discouragement time and again, feeling that no matter how well planned, fun or meaningful an event I plan is, it becomes an instant disappointment with nothing more than a few people's oblivious truancy.

My Thirteen-year-old friend may not command the vocabulary of a politician, but his feelings are as real and valid as any adult I have known. I offer as further proof this video (below) of an adolescent from Vancouver who in 1992 made a speech in front of the UN Earth Summit, rebuking a room full of grown ups (and by proxy the entire adult world) for their failure to correctly prioritize the environmental and socio-economic ailments of the time.

She points out in a powerful way the hypocrisy that we who belong to wealthy nations practice as the status quo: Every day we eat out, drive our air conditioned cars and sleep in our pillowtop beds - not even noticing how often we think of our next purchase, but ignore those withering away in need all around us.

I'm not saying that we should sell all we have and give it the poor (I believe that suggestion has already been tendered.) What I am saying is that we are foolish to think that our children do not notice the hypocrisy that is characteristic of our consumerist culture. Think about that for a minute. What did your children learn from you yesterday? What will they learn from you today? Who will they be tomorrow, since we know that they themselves will follow the cultural norms that we teach, however unintentional or grotesque.

For some of us, it is too late to change the world on the scale that the UN tries to. What we can change is ourselves, and our children, who are not yet old enough to believe that changing the world is impossible.