The Courage of Teens

Nearly every adolescent or teen I ever have worked with, from ministry to flute lessons, wanted to save the world. Some planned on the presidential route while others saw a quieter method through fields like medicine, teaching, entrepreneurship, or engineering. There is something incredible about this phenomenon. Youth see the world without the limitations that adults place on it. Teens do not see what can’t be done or what is said to be impossible or the sacredness of ‘what has always been.’ Every youth I have ever known laid down the challenge to the adults that would listen – the world is suffering and we have to do something.

These teens instinctively understood Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus’ “heart was moved with pity for [the crowd] because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.” While teens are very much immersed in their lives, culture, and technology, see things and are troubled by those things. I have been awed by what teens will do to draw attention to injustices, circle around those in pain, tirelessly give of themselves to help others. Their hearts are moved with pity and their hands are moved to action.

The challenge for us as adults is to remember that sense of mission teens so readily embrace. We need to remember that instead of shaking our heads, thinking of the impossibility of it all, and letting apathy or cynicism immobilize us that we are called to be the workers in the vineyard. 

One of my favorite quotes from the very quotable St. Augustine is “Pray as if everything depends on God, work as if everything depends on you.” Yes, we most definitely need to pray for the workers to work in the vineyard of the world, to be the instruments of compassion and change. We also need to pick up our own feet, roll up our sleeves, and get to work. We must fervently pray for mercy, pray for people to live mercifully, pray for mercy in our world. Yet, we must act passionately with mercy, exemplify mercy in our lives, and bring mercy to the world.

Will you, like Christ and so many teens, let your hearts be moved with pity and your hands moved to action?

Take some time today to read and reflect on Matthew 9:35-38.

Pray for those suffering, afflicted, and lost.
When has pity moved you to action?
When have you ignored the call to that action? What kept you from helping?
Pray for the courage and humility to be one of the workers in the vineyard.

Jennifer Delvaux

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