Lost Generation

I've been listening to the Rizzle Kicks on the radio on the drive into town today, with their sound commentary on the vacuum of real life for the average 21st century Brit. Those Rizzle boys may be fresh faced, but they do behavioural studies like old pros, grasping the emptiness that leaves a gnawing hunger in the unsatisfied hearts of our lost generation.

The underlying question is one of what or who we are worshipping-  Really? We all give ourselves to something, someone. A person, a lover, a child, work, money, sport. We define worship with this question - What or who are you giving yourself to? 
As men and women made in God's image, we are designed to give ourselves, dedicate ourselves to Him. That's how life is supposed to work: We're designed to live out our adventures within the deep safety of a secure relationship with God. In a hostile chaotic world, God still calls us to dedicate ourselves into his care and purpose.

It's always been that way. The big story of the bible gives us the boy Samuel, living in his own version of a lost generation. No knowledge of God, his peers had given themselves away cheaply, dedicated to foreign Gods, each to his own way. It's no surprise to find the comment that the word of the Lord was rare and there were not many visions. The light and glory of God had left the people. This was made physical as the Ark of the promise was taken by their enemies, the very symbol of God's presence with them - gone! A lost generation indeed.

Dedicated by his previously barren mother Hannah into God's active service, Samuel was ready to live the rest of his life in the temple for God's purpose and the sake of his people.

So what would our lives of dedication look like, were we to give ourselves fully to the cause of Christ? We don't live in the rarified atmosphere of the temple like Samuel, we are immersed in the confusion of our communities. Yet we are called to be set apart in the same way for the purpose of God in our lost generation. Each one of us, to come out of lostness - Out of the sterile barrenness of our beginnings, and into a new life of fulness and direction for Jesus Christ and his Kingdom. Leaving behind all the wrong things we prioritise for our dedication, all the idols we wastefully worship, all the dead ends and cul de sacs we blindly chase down. 

The early church came out of their lost generation and instead devoted themselves to the apostles teaching…..to God and to one another. So they were said to shine like stars in a wicked and depraved generation. Bright lights of dedication, beacons that shine clearly in a squalid and polluted climate. Now I think that's what the Rizzle Kicks are trying to communicate?!