What will happen to the Millennials when we older ones leave? Nothing, at least as far as we are concerned, if we don’t do something now. They won’t even know we’re gone. There’s a distance between us that some think might as well be there. We’re two different generations. Life will go on for them with or without us. True, but wouldn’t life be richer for them and us if we did something about that?

Of course it would. We’d learn to see things from a wider perspective through their eyes. We would be energized by their youth. We would start caring about the world even if we are leaving it soon. (Lest you think us boomers are all at death’s door waiting for the trumpet call, we’re not. I am 75 and I expect 10-20 more active years. It’s just that the Bible gives us 70 years as an average so I am aware that I am on borrowed time. I think knowing that should lead us to live more intensely than ever.)

For the Millennials to be more connected to us would have a stabilizing effect on their place in the world. It would lead to a deeper understanding of scripture and of what we call “capital T Truth.” And it would make us all more sensitive to the work of the Holy Spirit in the church, but more importantly, in the world. With all the renewed interest in the Jesus movement, (or the Jesus revolution as some are calling it), we can touch each other over this. We can connect. They are curious; we can remember. We have the stories. The stories are what made us who we are today. That’s what relationships are all about. Stories. Stories, then and now.