Confession: I’m a millennial and I fit the stereotype.
That’s right, talking ‘bout my generation; also the generation of any and everyone born from around 1981-1998 (give or take a few years). You’ve probably noticed over the last several years that Millennials have become quite the hot topic. People love us, hate us, defend us, and try to tear us down… sometimes all at once. We’ve been called selfish, entitled, ambitious, lazy, dreamers and the loudest generation to walk the earth.
So what’s with all the controversy? Why has our generation gotten more of a spotlight than any other?
Because we’re begging for it.
Thanks to amazing technologies like the iPhone, a variety of social media platforms, and more apps that we could ever know what to do with, our voices have more volume than our parents could have ever hoped to have at our age. So as we beg for more attention and a brighter spotlight, it gets handed right to us.
According to a Time magazine article written in 2013 about the Millennial generation (right around when marketers started to scratch their heads and realize what they were up against with this generation), we take the gold medal in the categories of narcissistic personality disorders, fame-obsession, and most participation awards. We’re focused on me, love me, care about me, and the most special person in the room is (naturally) me.
There was another article that floated around in 2013 titled “Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy”. Though over dramaticized and slightly sarcastic, I think the author hits the nail on the head about our generation: we’re not just satisfied with the “American dream”, but want our own personal dreams; so when reality doesn’t meet our expectations, we become unhappy, frustrated and angry.
Though many corporations and old school business folk find us lazy, entitled, and generally hard to work with, we’re also big dreamers who aren’t afraid to push limits, think outside of the box, and not let failure keep us from dreaming bigger. We’re vast in number, have enough energy to put the Energizer Bunny to shame, and we’re taking the business world by storm.
Much of the Church would also agree that we’re lazy and entitled, as well as self-obsessed with a lack of respect for authority. Sure, we could be characterized by our tendency to be self-focus, our inability to stick to commitments, and our general aversion for authority. Take a closer look, though, and you’ll also find that many millennials in the Church are gospel focused, desire to be committed to their local church, crave deep, authentic community, and are begging for people in authority to mentor them and give them wise, Godly counsel. Just ask Russell Moore, he’s got some good things to say about our generation.
Here’s the deal: yes we definitely have a lot of flaws and problems. I’ll be the first to give you the list of things we’ve failed at and the ways our generation tends to sin most; we are far from perfect. But that’s just it, what generation is perfect? It’s not like the Baby Boomers, the Gen-Xers or any other generation is any more or less perfect. They may have different struggles and different strengths, but every generation has got them.
I think we as a culture, and especially as the Church, simply need to start looking at things just a little differently. Do I struggle with being self-absorbed and entitled? Yes. Is it true that most people my age struggle with being self-absorbed and entitled? Yes. Are people not of the Millennial generation immune to being self-absorbed and entitled? Absolutely not. We all sin and we fall short. It’s that simple. So what if instead of pointing fingers at the problems with different generations, we started to own our sin and choose to point each other to the Cross?
Yes, I’m a Millennial and yes, I fit the stereotype. I’m not proud of my sin or my struggles or my weaknesses. But I’m real glad that I serve a God who is big enough to handle not only my weaknesses and struggles, but the weaknesses and struggles of all the generations before me and all those to come. He also loved every single generation enough to send His Son as a sacrifice to cover those sins. For that, I think we can all take down the generational dividers and praise our God Who is mighty to save.