Overworked Kids

Kids today have way too much to do. The kids in my youth group are constantly doing something. They have drama stuff. They have soccer on Sundays. They have other sports throughout the week. I don't think there is a day that they don't have something going on. Then, they try to squeeze church into that mix. This is insane.

When I was a kid I played sports and went to church, but the sports didn't happen on Sunday. And practices were always over before Wednesday night church. I mean every night after practice I would go and play basketball with some neighborhood buddies, but I wasn't really pushed in every which direction by the many obligations I had. I only had like two obligation, church and school. What are we teaching these kids today?

I think it is a bad trend that our youth don't know how to rest. They go from one thing to another with very little rest in between. They have after school things and then homework, and sports that are outside of the school. Then some of them have to work, and there is no "me" time in any of this. We are teaching our kids to be overworked business people. Any we are teaching them that soccer is as important as church, or at least it is okay to have things compete with church.

Now, I have my struggles with the church. I really don't like institutions, and I think that sometimes the churches have no idea what God really wants. But I don't think we should be teaching our kids to be cynical about church. Instead, we should let them come to that conclusion on their own. They are plenty smart enough to see the flaws that come from getting a bunch of humans together to decide what God really wants for the world.

I guess my point is: It is no wonder that people grow up without ever figuring out how to rest and relax. We teach people from a very young age that it is something that you are supposed to chance but never catch, like the wind. Man, we like screw stuff up. On top of that we teach them that since you can't rest you might as well try to buy lots of stuff to make up for it. I think that's another topic though. I guess that all for now.

Later homies,

Mark