There Is Much To Do

As the world burns, bleeds, and weeps – a ten year old finishes his first week of the fifth grade. Pencils litter geography lessons and long division. I begin gathering loose papers and stacking books. A journal falls open. Prompts mark the pages: “Things I’m grateful for…” and “Things I’m praying for…”. There, scrawled in childhood manuscript, is the reply:

“My family. Earth. Joy.”

“Afghanistan. Haiti.”

Tears fill my eyes. What more is there to say? Add to the world’s rage and indignation? Lend cheap words of comfort? I read somewhere that we should not be fearful for our children because it is no accident they were placed in the here and now. God has created a generation to face what lies ahead. Each one holding a piece of what the world needs and bestowed with precisely the fortitude required. He is building up an army to make Him known. And you – mothers and fathers – have been chosen to raise them up in the way they should go.

There may be little left to say.

But there is much to do.

Parents kneeling by bedsides after the fall of night will pave a prayerful path for the battle-ready. As we cut sandwiches in half, place bandaids on knees and answer hard questions…. We show them the broken world, while we turn their eyes to the One holding it. You feel helpless? You are parenting a battalion for a broken world. Get to work. Teach them Truth that will not sway with the ages; not the speculation and scandal that paints the screen in your hands. Show them how to help with what they have. Be an example of sacrificial love. Let them see you pouring your heart out in prayer. Instruct them in ways that will empower them to feed and lead their generation. Guide them in every skill and nurture every bit of integrity. My prayer is that the arrogance, superficiality, and false piety of current generations will be struck down. That hypocrites denying absolute truth while simultaneously holding others to a moral code of their own creation will hit their knees. That from their foolishness a faithful, wise generation will arise. May our humility fertilize the ground that grows them. May our painful undoing lead to a holy uprising unlike anything our eyes have seen.

Psalm 78