There have been countless questions that have been muling about my brain housing group and unfortunately my hamster powering the wheel has been working over time. I'm hoping that this will give the poor little guy a break! None of these questions seem out of the ordinary, but still something that I've continually thought about...
Why are there less and less 20 and 30 somethings attending church?
Why do we find more and more people not staying at one company for 20-30 years and instead doing 5 year stints at various places or switching careers?
Why are we waiting longer to get married or not even marry at all?
Why do we color in the lines anyway?
Because these institutions have ultimately FAILED us.
One must not look too far to see the failures of society's institutions that are parents trusted ever so dearly...
... Our failing economy
.... Companies declaring bankruptcy and laying off countless workers to offset costs
..... Divorce rates almost equal if not higher within Christians than their non-Christian counterparts
....... The religious hierarchy that elevates the religious leader(s) to a holier than thou over their general population
The world and our future is uncertain to us young adults trying to forge our on path in this world.
I'm hesitant about staying within a certain place or certain job for 20 years.
I've been deeply hurt more by "Christians" and the church more so than my other friends because they are trying to live like they're already in Heaven and have no bearing on the world around them.
I hate society's rules on how you have to accomplish A, B, and C in order for you to get to point D.
Except what I realize is that as you are trying to accomplish tasks A, B, and C, point D is getting further and further away from you. There will always be something else or another menial task that you must complete as you're slowly selling your soul to get some tangible item.
These menial tasks I feel are society's rules to keep us contained. To keep us under control. Hinders creativity. And ultimately suffocates us under the meaningless things which ultimately only make the rich richer and keeps us all in check.
Sure, corporations, the government, and churches promise the world on a silver platter to us with a liter of puppies...
BUT... what they fail to tell you is that you have to play their game. You have to color within the lines and make things pretty for someone else before they can say you can move on.
I look at my life and see just the failures and misgivings of all the times I've tried to color within the lines and make my picture all nice and pretty, only to be given a stern disapproval that it wasn't supposed to look THAT way and why not try it a different way. Oh... let's now try it this way to see what it looks like, which is typically code for, "I have no idea what else to give you... so this is busy work." Or after you finish the 12 steps to Heaven, read the 289 steps to becoming a disciple... don't worry, once you're done with that we'll give you the 6,724 ways you can bring a person to Christianity.
We do all these things for a society or an institution which ultimately fails us. But why? To get some unattainable item that will always be ever so fleeting whether it be money, recognition, power, or whatever else?!
No... I refuse.
This is why I do not believe I need to do this particular project this way.
This is why I believe that I don't need to keep going to church in order to say that I'm a good person/Christian
This is why I refuse to color in the lines.
