Buying Time

“Feeding the flock with his brethren.” - Gen. 37:2c

Few tasks could be as menial as watching sheep graze on a hill. So boring is the pastime that counting sheep is proven to produce sleep. The beginning of Joseph’s story is about as regular and monotonous as anyone’s. He finds himself in a similar situation to many young men who are sitting idle in today’s society. They are like the workers Jesus described in his parable who “sit idle in the marketplace.” (Matthew 20:1-15)
They are hanging around without a mission, without direction, or a will to obey. Since the late 1960s a booming counter-culture has successfully dismantled the institutions that used to give a young man direction, purpose, and challenge in his life. The government can no longer be trusted following decades of deceit and scandal. The institution of the family has been steadily eroded to the point that parents have little influence over the morality, career decisions, spirituality, and life paths of youth. The church has become labeled a hypocritical, irrelevant institution with little to offer the post-modern, technology driven world. Schools, civic institutions, military, and the traditional morals of Western society have lost their influence on the minds of youth, and therefore left a great vacuum in which there is little compelling vision to be had. “Where there is no vision, the people perish,” (Prov. 29:18) and the practical result for man is the life of quiet desperation, “counting sheep,” and a resignation to the insignificance of post-modern man.
We have been disconnected from the center and many are wandering aimlessly in search of a higher purpose. Video games, i-places, cyberspace, headphones, and a fixation with entertainment serve to soften the pain.
Boredom is becoming the grand destruction of many a youth in our culture. The fruit of boredom in America is widespread drug and alcohol abuse, senseless violence, and increasingly disconnected behavior. If there is one word that could describe the feelings of many between the ages of 14 and 21 it would be apathy. No passion, no purpose, nothing to live or die for, no challenge, no variety, no call greater than themselves, and no abiding sense of mission and purpose haunt the lives of many an idle teenager in this land of plenty.
These are shepherds passing time in the field of the father. These are young men the age of Joseph who have yet been challenged to dream a dream larger than their ability to achieve. And these are the idle workers that Jesus wants to enlist into His service. Consider yourself called.

Lord, enlist me in your service,
Capture my heart for Your purpose.

Sweet Seventeen

“Joseph, being seventeen years old." - Gen. 37:2b

Oh, to be seventeen again. A beating package of emotions tightly wound around an ever inquisitive mind. This time of exploration and testing of all known boundaries for many American youth is also a time of severe upheaval.
We live in a land which glorifies youth. Every commercial, every model, all the prizes and temptations of our culture are fixated on the energy and often reckless desires of youth. As the fountain of youth was the quest for early American explorers, our culture still searches for creams, balms, cures and cars which capture the essence of youth.
I remember getting the keys to my first car. Being put behind the wheel of a half-ton V-8 Pontiac was like throwing fire into the simmering cauldron of teenage emotions. The power of being behind the wheel, the freedom to chart my own destiny, the command of speed and agility of control all feed deeply into the emerging soul of youth. But with this new freedom, comes a tremendous amount of responsibility that few teenagers can handle.
Car insurance speaks this truth. To insure the passions of a young man turning 17 requires a significant premium—based purely on the driving statistics. When you put power, force, and direction into hands unprepared to handle them responsibly, accidents are bound to happen. Joseph's dream was like a revving engine in the hands of a wound up teenager.
Young men yearn for speed and long for living on the edge. Adrenaline, testosterone, and endorphins are running through their blood, and with this release of passion comes a need for power, conquest, and challenge. Our society rarely offers this outlet. The young soul of a man entering adulthood is longing to know he has the power to make a dent on the world. Impurely directed, this quest for impact takes dangerous turns into drugs, vandalism, womanizing, or crimes.
But this desire comes from God, and something of this passion must be harnessed and caressed in early youth so that these youth have the initial fuel to carry their deepest dreams through. When Joseph was seventeen, God began to speak to him about the destiny he was to carry. God is reaching out to many at this turbulent and impulsive age to saddle them with a vision of the conquest for their own generation.
As we harness the energy of this emerging generation, temper it with character and patience, God will fulfill his prophetic promise of turning the hearts of the children to the fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children. This merging of the generations is destined to bring a blessing on the earth.

Those who wait on the Lord will renew their youth,
They will mount up with wings as eagles.