Wake Up, Look Up

hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach

wrock and in today's episode we're

asking the question should we Chase

Trends uh this is this is based on an

article I read in the New York Times

this week about Jin Z that's the

upcoming generation and how frustrated

they are growing with what's called

micro Trends now I don't know how old

you are but the truth is in every

generation there are Trends uh skinny

jeans baggy jeans right leather jackets

or cardigan sweaters every generation

has things that marked their generation

but in the past the way that's worked is

that there were things that were kind of

cool for your entire High School career

so that letter jacket that you got as a

freshman stayed relevant when you were a

senior but with the Advent and Rise of

social media particularly apps like Tik

Tok where everything is shrunk down into

15 or 30 seconds Trends are coming

quicker and they're ending quicker so

the combination of something like Tik

Tock and then so-called fast fashion

like uh shine uh they when you put these

together what happens is you get a

culture that is getting new trends every

30 seconds and fashion companies that

will sell them what they need to be

Trend compliant for $15 so what happens

is you buy an entire wardrobe that in

one month is no longer cool and many of

the people in gen Z are saying you know

what I'm over it I have had enough they

talk about anxiety am I wearing what's

cool am I still relevant am I still

going to be popular but also fatigue

that comes from a heightened sense of

needing to always be cool they talk

about fear of missing out fomo and

Status seeking always worried there's a

new trend that they don't know about and

and and the result of that being that

they always feel empty they always feel

a little less than and insecure and I

don't know about you but from what I

remember about being a teenager I didn't

need any help feeling any more insecure

so how can we help gin Z to think about

this whether you are a ginzer or maybe

the parent or uncle aunt grandparent or

friend of someone in this age group well

the the first thing is to understand

that chasing all that this world has to

offer leads to emptiness there are some

books of the Bible that I think we would

benefit as a culture from spending a

little more time in some maybe lesser

traveled books that have a lot to say to

this culture one of those is

Ecclesiastes eclesiastes was written by

a guy named Solomon who had everything

he was successful goodlooking wealthy

and one of the things he talks about all

the time is the

meaninglessness of so much of his

daytoday life even though he had the

ability to chase whatever his heart

desired it often led him to emptiness

and it always will that's because the

culture isn't offering us anything real

they're telling us if you wear this if

you do this you're going to be cool but

what does that even mean what the

Bible's calling us to is something far

more real something far more tangible

and that is the idea that there's a God

who is making this world new that he

wants to start with us making us new and

then work through us making us people

who actually shape the world into

something better it's a calling of

giving not taking of of using our status

as a way to serve others not having

others serve Us by giving us status it's

a a way forward that leads to

contentment uh it's a way out of the

Trap of the fear of missing out it's

true value that's what Jesus says in

Matthew 6 it's true value that thieves

and rust and moths can't destroy or get

rid of listen what we need to tell our

teenagers is that feeling this anxious

isn't the inevitable byproduct of being

a teen teenager it is the very real

byproduct of the way they are doing

teenager ring it's social media it's

fast fashion these things are not benign

they're malignant they're making our

kids think that they're just not good

enough we have to say to them look in

every generation there are two paths the

path of culture and the path of Christ

now we can't make our kids go down

either one of those paths they have to

decide for thems elves but what we can

do is lovingly patiently winsomely

pointing out to them that the very real

way they're feeling is always the way

you feel when you go away from God and

that God has so much more for them

chasing Trends is a sign of insecurity

but insecurity is a sign of not knowing

how loved and valued You Are by The God

Who Made You by The God Who wants to

save you and by The God Who wants to

include you in his kingdom we should at

least be saying that to our kids in the

hopes that one day they won't just get

tired of Trends they'll get tired of not

having Jesus hey thanks so much for

watching this episode of wake up lookup

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