There are ten million views on this post.
Like I said, 10 million views.
I'm a Millennial with 4 kids, and I understand the frustration. It is exceedingly hard for our family to save up for things that were the norm for our parents and grandkids. We're still in the little ranch home we bought a decade ago because everything else is out of our reach, despite a significant increase in income that comes with college degrees and the work experience of a couple in their 30s.
New vehicles? Ha! We had to rush to buy a used van with almost 100,000 miles before interest rates spiked a few years ago. Even with the lower interest rates, that was all we could afford.
Long gone are the days where my mom's dad could buy a new Chevy every few years and afford to fix up his two-story, 3-bedroom home as a high school dropout who worked in a Taylor ice-cream-machine factory.
In other words, something has gone spectacularly rotten in Denmark and the middle-aged workers who are trying to grow families are feeling that weight squeeze the life out of them.
Which is why enmity between Boomers and Millennials/Gen Z seems to be growing. Thus, the memes:
Let's look at the replies to that post:
Yikes!
Talk about division!
I'm not going to explain how you should feel about this. I'm just noting that it went viral and many things that go viral tend to be at the center of cultural conversations that we should be having, but aren't.
But I will leave ya with a few thoughts from that thing called the Bible that has informed 5,000 years of human behavior and civilization.
First, it is a mandate for parents to leave an inheritance for their children and children's children. God is a generational God. As King Solomon said in Proverbs 13:22, "A good person leaves an inheritance for their children's children, but a sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous."
The Apostle Paul says that those who leave their relatives hanging when the need is legitimate are worse than those who don't even acknowledge God: "Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."
Jesus makes it abundantly clear that massive wealth stored up for only yourself is wicked - "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth" and "be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions."
He told them this parable: 'The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, "What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops."
'Then he said, "This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, 'You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."'
'But God said to him, "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?"
'This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.'
Don't think I'm taking the side of my fellow Millennials here, though. The Bible also warns about spoiled children (Deuteronomy 21:18-21, Proverbs 22:6) and the waste of an inheritance. And it commands children to honor their father and mother (Exodus 20:12, Colossians 3:20), even if those parents are busy living it up on their yacht in Florida while you figure out how to afford groceries this week.
The problem facing Boomer parents and their Millennial kids is not new. As the author of Ecclesiastes says,
I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.
But those who want to live a full, satisfying, and good life must look to the work of their own hands.
A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?
Jesus said not to worry - that God would give us what we need, if only just enough, and that our focus should be on seeking God's kingdom. To those who seek God, wisdom and peace is given, but to those who toil for themselves - whether Boomer or Millennial - everything they have will one day be taken from them and given to those who please God.
To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God.
All of us would do well to think long on these truths.
