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, we're asking the question, will our kids undo everything? And this is prompted by an interesting article I read in the New York Times recently called can you fake being rich? It was looking at a new trend online where influencers, people like, the account fresh and classy or old money or Carter Bo Are teaching people how to mimic old wealth through fashion, manners, and grooming. In other words, how to act like they're not just wealthy, but they come from families that are generationally wealthy. they are citing a growing trend in people that as, their financial means get stretched thinner and thinner. People are longing for elegance and financial stability in the midst of insecurity. But what I found most interesting is that the big reason people are buying into these old money accounts is because it's a reversal of the generation before. one of the things they talked about is that there's a generational backlash against kind of the loud, audacious street culture that dominated the 90s and the early 2000s. That generation, my generation, was anti establishment. It was brash. It was in your face with, we don't care whether we come from generational money or not. We're here to be heard. And now in this generation, people are saying, we don't want that anymore. We want instead the appearance of elegance and wealth. I guess I found that interesting because I thought, man, this is just the same cyclical trend that you see over and over again. And if you're older than me, you've seen it more than I have. With each generation reversing and undoing, the cultural zeitgeist of the generation before it, pushing back, zigging instead of zagging, being everything the generation before them was not. Because, after all, all of us see the weaknesses of our parents or grandparents, generations, and we see the way to do things better, at least according to us. I couldn't help but hear the words of Jesus, who talks about this kind of here today, gone tomorrow approach to, culture, approach to value, to meaning when he says this in Matthew 7, that everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The storms will come, but the house will stand. Jesus says that all of us are either building on rock or on sand. We're building lives on a foundation that either is real and secure or is really nothing. More than ready to fall apart. You see, each generation really does see the weaknesses of the generation before it. how could we not? We see the shortcomings of our parents. We recognize where they were wrong and their approach to parenting and their approach to money, to parenting, to finances. We know the ways they got it wrong, and so we assume that if we want to get it right, we'll just do it differently. But of course, my children and yours see the weaknesses in the way we do things. Jesus was challenging us to step out of the fad, to step out of the generational approach to any number of things. Because in the end, that generational approach will show to be like the ones before it, inadequate, insufficient and rejected by the generation to come. Jesus is challenging Christian families, Christian parents, Christian people to build their their lives on the moral security and stability of his kingship, to seek his wisdom on parenting, on wealth, on marriage, on any number of topics, to do things his way. Because not only when the storms come in our own lives and in our own generations will our lives hold up, but that becomes a foundation upon which our children can build. See, as Christian families, we shouldn't be marked by the fads of our generation. We should be separate from them. Building on the foundation of Christ. Sometimes that might mean we look a lot like a culture who happens to be right on a particular topic. Sometimes that means we will look wholly different than the culture around us. But what it will mean is we're showing the next generation to come how to actually chase after Jesus, how to live a kingdom centered kind of life. Will your kids? Will mine throw out everything we did? Well, if we don't build on Jesus, then yes, in the end, the storm of the next generation will undo everything we've built. Unless. Unless we step out of the cultural moment and build on the rock of Jesus Christ. 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!