We Millennials–Part III; Hope through Change

          Millennials, we have to get a grip on our generation! The boomers lied to us and the Xers kept us down. Welcome to capitalism. Now what do we do? Well…after shark week is finished, we need to talk about life. We are a culture that has little interest in listening to others, but will we listen to ourselves? We might. We have been fed a stream of synthetic experiences in our virtual world of entertainment for far to long. We crave authenticity. We crave experience. We are very open about our emptiness. We can’t trust our professors or the books they write, but we can trust our own senses. Once again, seeing has become believing and reality can be experienced. We must quickly plug the many holes in our post-modern worldview with truth, where ever it my be found.
-Cont.

  This is my story of plugging holes and searching for truth. As an elder millennial I feel a responsibility to tell my story to you. 

I have walked many paths in my 31 years on this earth. I started in a Texas neighborhood, then on to a Memphis suburb. I was raised on a Tennessee farm and left home at 20 for the mountains. I was on my own and looking for something that I could give my life to; something that would help me life my life outside the consumerism and partying that had consuming my friends. I wanted a cause. I wanted a fight. I wanted to fight. I wanted to live and die for something bigger than me. I wanted my life to count! My culture wanted my money and loyalty, but offered nothing more than a moment of entertainment. 

At twenty, I headed out on my own and found myself working in a small North Carolina town called Andrews. I had no education and little ambition. But I wanted or than MTV and Abercrombie and Fitch. In Andrews I met a group of men that lived their lives completely different than anything I had seen in my life. These men taught me devotion. They taught me that living for others was better. I learned the teachings of Jesus and memorized the words of Scripture. For the first time I spent large amounts of time in meditation and worship. I was becoming what I am now. 

I believed the truth found in Jesus. Truth is not a system or church; it is not a idea or a book. It is a PERSON named JESUS. I became impassioned with this new truth I have been given. I spent a year trying to fit this truth into my life and found that not only my life was changing, but I was changing into a different person. Then the game changed when I read these words of Jesus written by his disciple, a man named John.

God didn’t send Jesus to earth to condemn us, but to save us through him. If you believe in him, you are not condemned, but everybody who does not believe stands condemned, because they have not believed in the name of Jesus. –John 3:17-18 (Paraphrased) 

        These ancient words changed my life. The phrase STANDS CONDEMNED burned into my heart. I had heard there were some people in the world that had not heard the story of Jesus. I did not know much, but I knew that Jesus loved them and wanted them to know it. So I went into a time of prayer and mentorship as I prepared to GO. I was given two names Yaminahua and Jurua. The first was the name of a tribe, the second was the river where they lived. 

A small plane dropped me and my dear friend  Efrain Mosquera into the Jungle. There we taught Jesus and saw other lives changed as well as our own. My life continued to change during the 2 years that I lived in the Jungle. May 2008, I walked my last jungle path and returned to America. I walked back through Texas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. And in the U.S. I realized my old friends knew a different person; a person that I have left in the jungle. The old me was too scared to move forward so I left him behind. 

Still, there were others who stood condemned. I knew I couldn't stay in the US and ignore them. My truth had become so real. I had been changed into another man. I had seen too much to ever turn back. I now live with my wife and baby boy in South Sudan. Yeah, it’s tough. And somedays, life beats me absolutely senseless. But I have peace and coherence in my life and I am happy. My emptiness has been filled. The way I see it, life is short; for everybody so I keep on telling the Story and pointing people towards the truth and that TRUTH is a person named JESUS.