More from the Marist College survey that we’ve been exploring.
When asked to choose among five long-term life goals, 31 percent of millennials chose “to be spiritual or close to God” as their top goal, the highest among any generation.
Well…let me just say that Marist isn’t exactly breaking a story there but the fact that nearly 1 in 3 members of the generation stated this I believe is actually more cause for alarm than for relaxation.
This also means that 2 out of every three don’t consider this a priority. Let’s tease that out a bit.
First of all, this is the highest number of all the generations on this question. Why? Could it be that the other generations already feel close to God and therefore that’s not quite on the priority scale for them? Could it also be that they are apathetic about this? Could they be more interested in religion as opposed to spirituality?
The answer to all of the above is “no.”
The issue at hand here is connection. Other generations have always had at least a loose connection to a spiritual community and at their transitional points into adulthood, the community played a much greater role in their lives. The church was a huge part of the community and so people learned more by osmosis than anything else. You become what you are close to.
Millennials today are highly mobile and don’t often make strong connections. They want things when they want them and are eager to move along to a new place, a new experience. They don’t often pray in communities and therefore are left to their own devices to form that connection with God.
And often they don’t have a clue how to pray, or what to pray.
If you had a friend who you met once a month and you didn’t know how to talk to them and they said nothing to you in reply, what kind of relationship would that be?
And that, friends, is the relationship, most young people have with God.
But here’s the good news and this is where the church comes in…
They long for that greater connection. 31% of them have said that they want a closer connection with God. 1 in 3 when left to their own devices still can’t shake God off. It’s not surprising on either count now how many don’t feel a need for connection and then it’s somewhat amazing that another third does.
How do we awaken that other two thirds of their own need for spirituality in their lives–because we all need God and those of us who have a lived experience of finding God in our lives know what that has meant to us.
What story can you tell and in what format about God in your life? How do we transmit the great meaning that spirituality has held for us? What difference has God made in our lives?
That is what we all need to do…give expression to our faith so that the young might have an experience as well.