Grant Skeldon - The Passion Generation: The Seemingly Reckless, Definitely Disruptive, But Far From Hopeless Millennials

CONTENTS

KEVIN BATISTA

RAYMOND HARRIS

MAC PIER

CHARLES SPURGEON

SUJO JOHN

ERIC SWANSON

GARY BRANDENBURG

MARTIN LUTHER

DR. ADAM WRIGHT

MARGIE FRANK

SCOTT SHEPPARD

GEORGE MUELLER

JERRY WAGNER

DIMAS SALABERRIOS

SALLY SQUIB

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE

M arch 8, 2006, was the biggest day of my life.

Before I tell you why, allow me to tell you a little about myself. I was sixteen years old, and like most high school kids, I found my identity in something other than God. To me, Jesus was a good guy and I knew he was real, but I didnt want him yet. He was nice, but he also was a killjoy. I wanted to have fun first and then settle down later. I told myself, Ill be a Christian when Im twenty-six. Im not kidding. I planned an age to become a Christian. It was pretty ridiculous, but it reveals how much I didnt get it.

God didnt sit on the throne of my heart. Instead I replaced him with typical substitutes. First, it was basketball. I had always loved the sport and been identified as a basketball player. My friends and I played all the time. Second, there was my girlfriend. We had been together for three years (which is basically forever in teenage years), so everyone thought we were going to be high school sweethearts. She was the girl on the hip-hop team, and I was the guy on the basketball team. It was like a ghetto High School Musical in the making.

And yes, you heard that correct: my school had a hip-hop team. Its probably a good time to tell you that I grew up in a part of Dallas that was a little more urban, which is a euphemism for growing up with a lot of Hispanics and African Americans. This was pretty awesome, because Im Hispanic and African American. My mom is a five foot little Mexican lady, and my dad is a six foot four South African man. Theyre definitely a unique duo. But Ill be honest. I feel like a Mexicant, because I cant speak any Spanish. And my dad is white, so hes not what people expect when I tell them hes from Africa. (Once when I spoke in Uganda, I joked that I was technically African American, but when I told them my dad was South African, they laughed and said, That doesnt count!) My upbringing is important for you to know, because the third thing on the throne of my heart was the approval of people. I, like many high school kids, cared a lot about what people thought of me. I just wanted to fit in and be liked, but its hard to fit in when you always feel different. Our culture shapes a lot about us: food, dress, music, hobbies, values. Being Mexican but not feeling Mexican, and being South African but not feeling South African, made it pretty hard to figure out my identity. Who am I? What am I supposed to be like when Im diverse and everyone else isnt?

Luckily, my high school was radically diverse. So for the first time in a long time, I felt like I belonged. Things were great. Our basketball team was good, my girlfriend was legit, and I had just landed my first job at my favorite clothing store, Marshalls. I was living the dream.

Then, in one week, everything came crashing down.

On Monday, my girlfriend cheated on me. On Wednesday, I was kicked off the basketball team. And by Friday, my popularity was washed down the drain. Everyone was talking about me, but not the way I wanted them to. I know it sounds dramatic, but from my limited teenage perspective, life was over. Everything I had been passionate about and everything I had placed my identity in was gone.

I had no girlfriend to spend time with. No basketball practice to attend. No friends to go see. Just gossip to avoid and feelings to numb. So when I got invited to a youth group I had never been to before, I accepted the invitation.

I wasnt really interested in finding God, but I was now single, and I was told there were hot girls there, so I went. It wasnt my first time in church, but it was the first time I went of my own volition. I had attended only when my mom dragged my brothers and me along. It wasnt that I hated church. But I definitely didnt like it. I just had never really connected with anyone there. Like most millennials, I craved authenticity, and the church just didnt seem authentic at all.

But that night, church went from being fake to being the most hopeful place on earth. For the first time, I heard the good news in a way that was real to me. I realized that the reason I was in shambles was because I had placed my identity in things that wouldnt matter in eternity. My whole life unraveled in one week because God wasnt my foundation. I was tired of trying to earn the approval of man instead of simply receiving the approval of God. So on March 8, 2006, I placed my future in the hands of a God who would never leave me.

The very next day, God gave me back my girlfriend, my spot on the team, and my popularity.

Okay, that didnt happen. God didnt give me my old life back, and in the end I didnt want it anymore. I had him, and I didnt need anything else.

The crazy thing about God is he can change your life without changing your circumstances. After my conversion, I returned to the same heartache that crushed me, but I was different inside. God was now in me. And I didnt care anymore about what people thought. Leonard Ravenhill once said, A man who is intimate with God will never be intimidated by man. I didnt know it at the time, but God was just getting started. It wouldnt be his last intervention.