Your Voice. 

Matters.

Your voice is heard.

Do not become silent.  Do not think that your voice doesn’t matter or that one life dedicated to truth and unity isn’t enough.  Speak truth.  Speak life.  Speak unity.  Speak revival. 

I grew up singing the lyrics. “You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything” to a song written by Aaron Tippin in 1991.

In our culture today, standing for something is not always popular.  But what is popular is not always right and what is right is not always popular.

I am tasked with walking beside a generation whose hearts are stirring.  Whose flesh wants something more than this world offers.  A generation that yearns to stand.

Headlines speak toward revival on campuses and a generation that is turning back to the gospel.  This is true.  This is something I have seen.  They are yearning for something different than a Sunday morning faith.  They want authenticity.  They want a Savior who speaks to them personally.  They want healing and restoration.  Their hearts are yearning and seeking a fresh wind.  They don’t want the motions.  They want to live it.

May they rise.

May the awakenings happening on college campuses reach our towns and cities.  

May the voices rise to be clear amongst the static.  That the hearts of the next generation would be turned towards truth.  That they encounter the living God that their hearts seek.

May the old embrace the new in realizing that what’s in the heart is what matters.  To stand united on the main thing, that our world is in need of truth and our young people hold the keys to change.

I remember where I was as I watched the Twin Towers burn.  I was that college student, stirred to make a difference and speak truth.  I remember sitting in my desk as I heard about the Columbine shooting and each mass shooting after that.  Though every incidence of violence that broke out. As a teacher, my heart broke for the lives of students that were lost to suicide.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.  We are not in this world alone.  We are in community with 8.2 billion other people.  People who are hurting, scared, alone, hungry, afraid, bitter, in need. 

What matters?

It doesn’t have to be like this.  We all have a part.  

May this generation turning their hearts back to Jesus be a reflection to the world.  That our lives would not end with silence, but that we would be brave enough to stand for truth and justice. 

I have seen this next generation labeled as the REVIVAL GENERATION.  And my hope is that they truly would be them.  After millennials and Generation Z, there has to come some generation that steps out.  That is bold. That seeks after a truth that this world does not offer.  I am sure that mainstream America may not label this generation as Revival Generation, but my work on campus with this generation gives me hope.  Even if a fraction of the students are pressing in for change, it is enough to light a spark that turns into a flame, that starts a fire and I hope it is an all-consuming fire for the things that matter in this world.  Not the things that fade, but the things that are eternal.