Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch and in today's episode I'm asking the question, can we help Gen Z be human? This is prompted by an interesting article I read in the Wall Street Journal recently called A New Lost why Gen Z is Unprepared for the Workplace. Gen Z, the upcoming young adult generation is finding themselves lacking real world relational skills. let me give you some examples of this. Only 56% of Gen Z adults, so those at the cutting edge of the Gen Z generation have, have had a romantic relationship in adulthood, down from 75% in prior generations, showing that they're not connecting in the ways that other generations have. Online learning for them surpassed many of them real in person learning. Now a lot of that's not their fault. They lived through the COVID crisis. but the reality is they've spent more time online than they've actually spent interacting with people. this is, has led to widespread social anxiety. I mean if you stay home for school, maybe you work from home, you can really develop kind of a castle in moat situation where you look out the window of a, at a world that you may be increasingly uncomfortable in and home increasingly feels like a bunker. experts are warning that this is going to cost companies. It's going to be because Gen Z is, is not going to feel comfortable in the workplace. They're not going to feel comfortable with social dynamics. So companies are actually going to have to hire young people and then teach them how to really in some ways be human, how to connect with each other, how to relate in real in person settings. this breaks my heart. You know, I'm raising children in this generation. I see the gradual pull always to them, towards devices, towards screens, towards online and away from real in person connecting. And I just want to remind you that when God made Adam and he placed Adam in a paradise that he had created for him, he said this in Genesis 2:18. It is not good for man to be alone. Now he said that for two reasons. One is because part of what it means to bear the image of a triune God, a God who is one and yet three, three and yet one is to be relational. God is relational. Before there was anything, there was the father, son and spirit in relationship. So anytime we move away from being relational, not extroverted, but relational, we become something less than human. Online interaction, staying home, avoiding people, those are Things that are diminishing what it means to be human. but the second reason that being alone is a problem is God had given Adam a huge mandate to fill the Earth, to have dominion over it, and he simply wasn't up to the task on his own. Being alone reduced Adam's capacity, and so he gave Adam Eve. the original Hebrew describes her almost like a military reinforcement. He gave him the support he needed to accomplish the mission he had given him. So not only does, an absence of relational ability make us less human, it actually diminishes what we can actually achieve. And, and I say that because when I look at Gen Z, I see enormous potential. but the problem is, in many ways, it's untapped Potential that is disconnected from being human. Potential that is disconnected from increased capacity is potential ultimately that will get wasted. I wonder if our message to young people needs to be a little less. Put down the screen, get off the Internet, do something in the real world. And a little more, hey, I want you to realize your full potential. I want you to live a fully human life. In other words, not telling them what not to do, but calling them to what they were created to do, because it's what they were created to do. I feel like even if they don't have a Christian background, it's going to resonate with them. And this is where I think it can be a real mission field for Christians and for the church. When everything else in the world is pulling young people online and away from each other, the church should get creative about calling them into proximity with one another, into unique spaces designed for them, maybe even offering some teaching on how to do some practical interacting, recognizing that it's hard to do anything for the first time if you don't feel comfortable doing it. If you're a young person listening to this, audit your life. Are you living a mostly online life? Are you living a mostly digital expression? Are you disconnected from actual human relationships? If so, let me invite you to check out a local church, because they're going to find real people who will not only care about you, but teach you to care about them. Then you'll become a little more human, a little closer to the capacity you were designed to have, and a little happier, too. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!