New Year's Eve is a time of celebration and reminiscing. It's a time where friends and family gather together to not only welcome the unknown, but to say goodbye to all the memories the past year held. For most, It is a time when we look back on all we experienced in the past year, and we eagerly wait for all the new year will hold for us. For most, it is a time to make "New Year's Resolutions" where many fixate on one thing to improve or on a goal to accomplish in the upcoming year. These things are what I typically think of when I hear the words "New Year's."
This year, however, I did New Year's totally different. I attended the Passion conference in Atlanta, Georgia which was a three-day conference where 65,000 college-aged students gathered together in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It is well known that college students and today's up and coming generation as a whole get a bad rap, but I believe they are misunderstood. What really hit home during this conference is that 65,000 college aged persons could have chosen many ways to spend their New Year's Eve and the first moments of a new decade, but instead they choose to gather with others in a stadium, celebrating something bigger than themselves.
Instead of formulating resolutions or their own plans to follow in the upcoming year, all of these people came together to worship the one that offers guidance, and to trust God with their path for 2020. They welcomed 2020 with arms raised high in praise. This opened my eyes to how this generation is so powerful. While many may have lost faith in society as the world can seem to be a very dark and malicious place filled with controversary, I am here to say that there is still hope. I believe that the decade among us will still have controversy and darkness living in it, but love and hope is not dead.
It is amazing to me that we not only recently welcomed a new year or even a new decade, but the "20's." The "20's" already have a reputation for being a "roaring", lively, and bold generation, but as Louie Giglio declared at Passion "it's time for them to hear, not us roar, but to hear Jesus roar through us to the world." The world needs this now more than ever. I believe those 65,000 students can do that and they can spread the flame that is within them, spreading love and hope to this dark world. So instead of discouraging and putting our generation down, lets encourage and join them on letting this decade be the most significant one yet. Let us let this decade be one that has Jesus's name written all over it. So, welcome, everyone, to the Roaring twenties, but this decade will be roaring for Jesus rather than worldly things.
