A recent CBS article reported millennials are more educated but less skilled than their predecessors. Last year, I read a poignant yet hilarious article on WaitButWhy.com called “Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy.” Thinking of the trajectory of my career as an educator and my personal journey as a young millennial, it’s prompted me to do some writing about millennials–our search for meaning and our experience adjusting to an America that’s very different than the one our parents started their careers in.
I would encourage you to look over each article first. They are amusing reads.
Here’s an excerpt from an upcoming post, on the subject, “Your dream job is not ready for you because you are not ready for your dream job.”
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We think the Generation Y dreamer is a new thing, but it’s really as old as time. Think about Joseph, as recorded in Genesis. It wasn’t his culture, his elementary school teachers, or the media that duped him into thinking he was very special and could do anything. It was God himself, so you know that it’s not a bad thing that you have high aspirations. He had a dream that was (actually) from heaven, from his very own Creator, that told him he was going to rule, and that his brothers would serve him. This particular seed was planted in very immature soil, as revealed in the fact that Joseph went and blabbed the dream to his brothers immediately. As is often the case and the grace of God, his ignorance was accelerant for his life adventure, and capitulated and him being tossed into a pit, picked up by raiders, and taken to a faraway land. Joseph learned to rule and reign and govern with a towel in one hand and a washbasin in the other. He served a godless man with a seductress for a wife. There he learned the skills of excellence and was promoted. That being said, learning excellence is not enough to rule and reign, but one must also have a deep value for people. God places such a high priority on people, he put that commandment directly under worship. It’s a big deal to Him, so we have no choice but to be really good at it. If we are not, God will supernaturally arrange circumstances in such a way that leaves no other option. For well over a decade, Joseph learned and developed a love for people by serving the lowest of the low. He was put in charge of prisoners. He learns to love and serve people who could benefit him in no way, who offered no upward mobilization. These were men who were look down on, down on their luck, and down on God. I wonder what sort of filth and bitterness came out of their mouth each day. Yet Joseph prospered even serving them.
Perhaps the most quizzical part of the story is that, at each step in this swashbuckling journey, the Bible has the audacity to say God was WITH Joseph. I would say to millennials that the boredom and difficulty of your circumstances are the evidence that God is with you. It is what you need right now. Before God can use your strength to build a kingdom, He must build kingdom strength in you.