Many young adults today know what it’s like to have a sense of militancy; to believe in a cause that is bigger than oneself. We anxiously watch CNN praying for our troops’ safe return. But back here on home soil, we work day in and day out with teenagers that have been given much to aspire to or believe in. Their biggest goal right now may be to date some guy or girl or what they are going to where to the prom. Most of them are in need of a serious Copernicus revolution; to see that the entire world doesn’t revolve around them. What I’ve learned through so many years in youth ministry is that not only do they need a sense of militancy, but they crave it.
Not long ago I heard a quote that I believe is both sad and accurate. Ninety-four percent of all Americans have no hero. We’re called to give our students a sense of militancy, but we cannot give away something we don’t have. What are your goals, your vision, your passions? Are you showing students where they can go and what they can do or are you simply telling them where they have been and what they did wrong? It’s important that we model a sense of militancy for them.
Joan of Arc was told if she charged that infamous hill, no one would follow. She simply replied, “I won’t be looking back to see.” Live your ministry and your life with that sense of determination, of militancy that says, “I’m going to go for this.” Remember Caleb in the Old Testament? He had that same, “I want that mountain” attitude. What mountain are you charging? What mountain are you encouraging your students to charge? Maybe it’s their school, maybe it’s your entire community or city. It’s time to give our students a sense of militancy; to show them how they can live with a purpose far greater than themselves.