Ugh! The realization of just which generation I belong to has got me crazy...

…so like many things in my life, I have recently realized something that has been obvious to the multitudes for years: I’m a Gen X-er!!! How depressing!

My lovely wife and I were watching the top 100 songs of the 1990s when I found myself waxing nostalgic to “Creep” and “Black Hole Sun.” The kicker came when I found myself saying these words, “Time is like a piece of wax, falling on a termite, that’s choking on the splinters.” Iconic for that time period. And I knew it then as I know it now! One of the quintessential pieces of Gen X culture is the whole “grunge, I can do whatever I want whenever I want attitudes, and by the way life bites bigtime so maybe I should just die or do something to tick somebody off!” Yea, that! You know, “I’m a loser, baby, so why don’t you kill me?” I actually had to Google “Gen X” to see when it was…that was when I found out that I AM ONE!!

The nightly news comes on. We find out about a broken leg that gets Fred Taylor into the Pro Bowl for the 1st time in his career which spans 10 years and over 10,000 yards. And what do I find myself saying? “If I were Fred, I would turn down that Pro Bowl invite just tick someone off!” Did I actually say that…immediately after figuring out that I was a Gen X-er!? I was aghast! Of course my wife already knew it. My parents had big time first hand knowledge of it. I was the only one I knew that couldn’t see the forest because all those blasted trees were in the way! Man, how depressing…Yikes! Another symptom of Gen X! Not only did I show angst, but now depression!

I am proud to say that I basically married out of my generation fairly quickly (I married "up" by the way). I graduated from high school in 1991, and in 1994 I got married to my beautiful bride! God presented me with someone that I couldn’t be away from…that’s what happens when God does it. We got married and I still went to college full-time while playing baseball for 2 more years. “We” (notice the quotes) got pregnant in 1996, and in March of 1997 our firstborn came into the world! I matured out of my generation extremely quickly and found myself sliding backward into my father’s generation! In fact, I’m pretty sure I was born in 1945…

I thank God for my wife. I thank God for my sons (we had a 2nd son in 2001). The three of them combine to keep me mature as well as young! I can honestly say that I’m really not a Gen X-er…I just don’t fit the stereotype. I don’t have THAT kind of angst! And I definitely don’t smell like teen spirit (whatever that means!).

So what does a Biblical literalist/traditionalist who happens to be a Gen X-er do whilst in the midst of the post-modern era? Fight, that’s what I do! I preach Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Solus Christus, and Soli Deo Gloria, that’s what I do! I become counter-culture! I become a rebel to my generation!

No longer full of angst and begging for the black hole sun to come, or waiting for the Sandman to enter…I am not willing to embrace the eternal dirt nap as Boortz would call it. No, I’m a rebel with a message of hope now. And I don’t mean this mamby-pamby notion of hope that the English language bestows…I’m talking about the Greek term! I’m talking about elpis or elpo…a positive expectation, usually one of pleasure, of which you know is going to happen! Awesome! Jesus Christ is our hope…he is what we positively expect to see in the future…that’s Greek hope! But it only occurs in the body of believers. One must accept on faith that Jesus is who he said he is, and the he did what he said he did. Then, and only then, can one have that positive expectation called hope.

I am a science teacher. And as such, there are certain expectations placed upon me by the worldly system. I must embrace naturalism, materialism, uniformitarianism…if not, how am I to have faith in the nearly 20 billion year evolution of the universe, the galaxies, the solar systems, the Earth, living things, and humans? I embrace the Bible. I consume God’s Word. And because of that I’m a science teacher rebel…I’m a Gen X rebel for the same reasons. Think about it. Why the angst? Why the depression? Is it not because of their worldview that humans are nothing more than animals that can speak? And since that is the case, then there is no purpose? And if there is no purpose, then why continue to live? Self loathing is one of the hallmarks of a good Gen X-er. But to loathe the self is to loathe the image of the one after which you were created.

You see it takes a proper perspective of who God is, and who we are. God is the highest, the almighty, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And humans are not animals. Humans are made in the image of God. We are special. And with being special comes responsibility. Let us embrace our Lord God and obey his commands as Ecclesiastes 12:13 says,

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man."

And what about that fear of God? It is reverence, it is awe, it is respect. See Proverbs 1:7

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline."

And again in Proverbs 9:10

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."

We are to fear the Lord because only with a proper fear of the Lord (respect, reverence, awe) can we gain wisdom and knowledge and understanding. This will guide our ethics in our science as we gain the ability to do things that maybe we shouldn't.