Ideas.
I’ve always been an ideas person. And I think in many ways, it speaks to the numerous privileges and opportunities we all have in our lives. I am certainly an example of someone with abundant privileges and opportunities.
Having said that, I think it lends itself to this theory that I have that we are part of the most over-rated generation in human history – because we have access to so much data, info, resources, modes of communication…but end up doing so little. We tweet, blog, talk, preach, retweet, share, etc…and while I’m not diminishing that the aforementioned things aren’t actions per se but what are the “count the costs” behind our actions? What are our sacrifices?
Or how does that verse go?
Much has been given…and much is to be expected. (Luke 12:48)
Or another way to look at it is that we tend to fall in love with our ideas more than actually doing something with these ideas to honor God, serve our neighbors, and advance the Kingdom and causes of mercy, justice, and compassion.
I recently spoke at a conference called The Idea Camp in Portland, Oregon. My topic was about ideas and the cost of pursuing those ideas. I spoke with Dan Merchant, director of Lord, Save us From Your Followers and the discussion was hosted by Charles Lee, founder of the Idea Camp.
As you’re watching this video (below), one great way to support One Day’s Wages is to invite your friends to become fans of our Facebook Page and consider donating one day’s wages (approximately 0.4% of your annual salary). It’s insignificant to us but it will have a dramatic impact for those living in extreme global poverty.
Can you take 1 minute to do join and visit the Facebook group? It’ll be a huge blessing to our work.
Ideas are nice but let me leave you this thought:
Ideas are secondary. The person behind the idea is more important than the idea.
And so, it still comes back to you:
- Who are you?
- What are you about?
- What’s your commitment?
- What sacrifices do you need to make?
- What are you doing to live out your dreams, passions, and ideas?
EUGENE CHO 
Eugene, great points here.
I think one of the major reasons that we are the most overrated generation is because we have lost the allurement of dreaming. Our blessing is having access to so much information, but also our curse is having access to all that information.
I think that we have seen reality and we have been told over and over that you cannot do this or do that, you just have to fall in line and be in the box.
The reason we are over-hyped is because we have been taught to stay safe and comfortable in a box that is predictable when in all reality we need people to get outside of the box, outside of their comfort zones and make a difference.
I’m committed to showing students Jesus. Some of that comes through teaching, some through programing, but mainly through mobilizing. Teaching students that they are valuable and there voice in culture is valuable.
I think that’s what Jesus did with His disciples and it made their faith come alive.
Eugene, a gentle push back. I would offer that our generations are the most active in history. And I would use you as an example. You took the huge risk to create One Days Wages. And there are so many people just like you creating compelling ideas. Idea Camp showed proof of that.
Part of the rub might be in having so much media present that we assume all we do is talk. But history reveals that this dialog process is critical to not killing each other. And it has take close to 30 years to deal with what it means to be the first wired generation. Now as the dust settles we realize we have the capacity to actually do something.
pushbacks are good.
i agree with your thoughts…but i still think we’re overrated.
or to put it more fairly, the jury is still out and i agree that we have a great amount of capacity…
I didn’t like this when you brought this up at a conference you spoke at and I still don’t like it but I think the reason why I don’t like it is because…it’s true.
Pastor Eugene,
I agree with the sentiment here, if not the actual argument. This same argument was actually the primary critique of ‘the present age’ made by Soren Kierkegaard back in the 1840’s – he saw the growing access people had to resources preserved previously only to the extremely privileged, and noted how easy it was becoming for people to espouse views without COMMITTING to them. So I don’t think it is a condition endemic to this generation specifically – rather it is a symptom of a deeper illness going back further, but exacerbated now by the postmodern hyperreality of Facebook, Twitter, blogging, etc.
Still, thank you for sharing this, and I pray that some of your regular readers (including myself) begin to take it more seriously. I also like to think of myself as an ‘ideas’ person, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having or developing or sharing ideas per se, except when it distracts us from the question of where our most important commitments lie.
God bless,
Matthew
Eugene, I have to disagree with you on this. This is not a generational problem but a fact of humanity. Humans ingest vast amounts of information, generate many ideas, and do only a few things. It’s not a moral issue at all but a natural limitation. Novel writers read hundreds of books for each they write, musicians listen to more music than they produce, etc.
It’s also (uncharacteristically for your blog) totally untrue: If there’s one thing that marks my generation is that we do more than any before us. We know more, we write more, we connect to more people, we consider more perspectives, and we are more effective at our jobs so that we accomplish far more in less time than our parents would have.
I’m really confused about the tone of this post. If I had to characterize the primary emotion in this post I’d say “shame”. Is this connected to some other conversation that I’m not aware of that would explain this better?
No need to be confused.
These are my thoughts. Not trying to ‘shame’ people but simply expressing my thoughts.
I’m glad that you and others disagree with me. That’s great and encouraging to hear that you and others have a different perspective.
Coming onto 40 in the upcoming year, I think I’m feeling more of a sense of urgency…
OOOOHHHH.
Wait a minute. I hope you didn’t read this post as a shame tactic to get people to support ODW.
I hope not.
@Eugene: no, no! I didn’t take it as a guilt trip 🙂 Sorry if I gave that impression. I just meant that the general tone seemed pretty far to one side of the grace-shame spectrum. I was looking for something like “How has the goodness of God in your life inspired you to make risky changes to act on your ideas rather than just think about them.”
I hear what you’re saying.
I guess my response is that in the background of what I write and share and my general tone of leadership, I feel it’s okay to share that “brutally honest” personal thoughts.
But yes: everything we do is in response to the goodness of God. I say a hearty ‘amen’ to that.
Eugene,
Count me in as one who agrees with you on. Our pastor at church last evening highlighted a book — can’t remember the name — where the author’s paradigm is one of technology taking the place of God. Indeed, technology has become a god. I’m also afraid of a 1930s-style Depression hitting this country. Because collectively we have so much more money and stuff in this country, we will not know how to respond when there is a time of drought or famine. In short, we don’t know what it’s like to feel suffering as much of the rest of the world does.
Appreciate your work with ODW. I currently support a variety of orgs, so don’t know how it fits in with what you’re doing.
I really enjoyed this post. I too am an ideas person and find it hard to coherently get what I am trying to say across let alone put it into action. But I agree with what you’re saying; we are so often deemed the generation that can change the world, but its not enough to think it or dream it, without doing a thing about it. We’re all willing to be Christians….. to a point. And I feel that’s where the problem lies. Jesus teaches us to love sacrificially, to dare ourselves to live a life which may not be easy or comfortable but which is part of God’s loving conspiracy. If we could live and love more sacrificially, I think this generation could perhaps live up to its potential
great post with resonates with one that Ken Loyd did a few backs:
http://kenloyd.net/?p=610
Great butt kicking stuff
Overrated… jurys still out
Whiplash… considering we went from flying in paper planes to the moon in less than 70 years… from isolated communities communicating solely by telegraph and post to an extremely connected global network in less than 150 years… yes. Definately whiplash.
is that a chick or dude in the picture this will settle a huge debate within my friends and I.