A few days ago I saw a nice young man, and he was crying. I didn’t ask for personal details, but I know that he had just failed an exam. I can’t tell you about the exam because my work has to be confidential, but he was very unhappy. His plans for employment depended on passing some exams, and he didn’t quite make it.

I gave him my best professional advice, but he didn’t seem interested. He wanted what he wanted, and it seemed out of reach. I have children, and now grandchildren, and that was a painful conversation for me. I want to see the younger generations succeed and move up to better things, in their lives.

Maybe you can relate. Some younger adults are severely stressed, these days. I thought life was hard when I started my young adult life, but I could always find a job, and things were not too expensive, back then.

Now, we have a generation that thinks it might never have a chance to own a house, and maybe never have a family. A normal life now seems impossible.

There is a lesson here, for us all. The world is not as friendly as it used to be. Apparently, according to the experts, there is a huge mental health crisis, in modern society: 

• READ: Gen Z adults and younger millennials are “completely overwhelmed” by stress

And if you prefer a short and dramatic video:

We can just do an Internet search, with key words like “generation Z” and “crisis” and we will easily find too much information to watch or read.

This is very serious.

Are you feeling it? Or do you know someone who can’t see normal success, in their life?

It was painful for me to sit with a nice, hard working young guy, as he sobbed.

So, do we have a younger generation with too much entitlement, or is the world falling apart?

Probably both conditions apply.

Entitlement?

As you read this, you are probably hooked up to the Internet, on some channel. Go to any coffee shop, and watch everyone pull out their cell phones.

I remember when we used phones to talk to each other, but those days are mostly gone. Now we have an endless supply of information, on the Internet, and … but wait ,,, as I was writing this, someone turned on a television near me, and I saw this line: “There are six billion cell phones in the world.”

I don’t know if that number is correct, but we have a constant flood of information, and it tells us about a world that mostly exists in our imagination.

That was strange, but there is some truth here. We have raised a generation that can expect the world to work a certain way, for them. When the truth finally shows itself, they can go into shock. Like that young man who failed an exam.

Life can be much harder than we thought.

Two thousand years ago, we were given these words:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life – is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2: 15 to 17)

Social collapse, “the world is passing away,” was promised two thousand years ago, and we might still doubt that. It is painful to see the truth, the world is passing away, and we have younger generations that are learning that painful lesson, from personal experience. The older generations, people like me, did not prepare them for this reality.

We might call that entitlement.

Next?

So, how does a new generation of adults live in this mess? When they finish crying?

I am writing as a Christian, and I made that decision because I didn’t like the way life worked, for me and my friends. I can only imagine how this new and stressed out generation can cope.

It is painful for me to watch, but what if the Bible is true? What if the world that we know is coming to an end “passing away”?

There is a lesson that we should not miss, in the stress of our younger generations. I hope my young friend, and all the others like him, can find their way. I could only do that with God’s help, and I believe that is the way for all of them.

The God of this world has no future for us.

FACEBOOK VIDEO: The End of the World as We Know It

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