question from the hip
are we a thankful generation? what evidence would you provide to substantiate your answer?
posted by Patrick Lafferty @ 9:16 AM
3 comments
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Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence. It is not what we have to acquire in order to experience life in Christ; it is what comes to us when we are walking in the way of faith and obedience. --Eugene Peterson
Thursday, November 03, 2005
are we a thankful generation? what evidence would you provide to substantiate your answer?
3 Comments:
We live in a high technology instant gratification society where anticipating people's needs before the people do isn't just possible, its good marketing. Doctoral theses are written and billions of dollars are spent in the effort to understand and satisfy our desires and invent new ones. For those with the funds, participating in the consumer economy means never having to ask for anything, only to be receptive to offers.
We were all taught to say please and thank you as children, so if we no longer have to say please, why should we say thank you?
I'll leave it to others to discuss thankfulness for noncommodities.
I think we're a very negative generation. Especially in light of media coverage, etc, where the bad is really all we allow ourselves to see. How can we be thankful when we never look at things positively?
Although I know we're all a little tired of hearing about the hurricane (case in point?), I think that was a good example of how negative we can be. It was a devestating disaster, and cannot be portrayed as a completely positive experience. But every detail, from the disaster relief teams all the way to the Bush administration, was saturated with criticism.
To me it seems we can often be like spoiled children. The more we are blessed (can any American citizen truly say that they are not blessed?), the more we require, and throw fits if we do not get what we desire. I agree with Nag, we are accustomed to instant gratification, and if we don't get it, we scream with pessimism instead of being thankful for what we do have. We've lost sight of how we got to where we are now.
"Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." - John Quincy Adams, 1802
What they said.
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