Generation X

Had a long conversation with a friend last night. He talk me about his dreams, his fears, and his present circumstances. All those triggered me to hibernate in thoughts again.

"It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are a lot of things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you do not realize is that they are realizing that too and are not really cold or catty or mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.

You look at your job. It is not even close to what you thought you would be doing or maybe you are looking for one and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and are scared. You miss the comforts of college, of groups, of socializing with the same people on a constant basis. But then you realize that maybe they weren't so great after all. You are beginning to understand yourself and what you want and do not want.

Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging a bit more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and add things to your list of what is acceptable and what is not. You are insecure and then secure.

You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.

You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you or you lay in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough to get to know better. You love someone but maybe you can love someone else too and cannot figure out why you are doing this because you are not a bad person. One night stands and random hook ups start to look cheap and getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic.

You go through the same emotions and questions over and over and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision. You worry about loans and money and the future and making a life for yourself and while winning the race would be great, right now you'd just like to be a contender!

What you may not realize is that everyone reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out." ~ (Above Description taken from one blind mouse.)

"Quarter-life crisis" usually hits from the ages ranging from 21 - 29, and early 30s' (known as Generation X), termed by Abby Wilner and Alexandra Robbins, authors of Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties.

These emotions and insecurities are not uncommon at this age, nor at any age in adult life. They occur shortly after a young person – usually an educated professional, – enters the "real world". After entering adult life and coming to terms with its responsibilities, some individuals find themselves in a world of career stagnation and extreme insecurity.

Fears and Anxiety where were they from? When did they ride on their chariots and march into our lifes? Were they huge giants or are we like grasshoppers? How did they cause us to rise in blood pressure and turn our life around?

Once we were fearless, we did not know what failure was. We have no experience what "bad fall" felt. We were like Humty Dumpty, we climb every great wall. But once we fell, we had a great fall. Pieces of us shattered on the floor. And it takes all the king's horses and the king's men, but yet they couldn't put us back together again. At least not the way that we used to be.

So why did picking up one's own life responsibility as such culture shock?

Could it be that we are too used to what had in the past? Or did we took for granted that there will be someone who knows all the answers to life and awaits for that answer to come? Or are we too sheltered living in a world and society that everything already have steps and protocols for us to follow? Did we become lazy to make decision? Or have we forgotten that what we have today, in the beginning, it was none?

Let me asure you that life is not an easy path. There are forrest and rocks and trees and creatures in front of us. So how do we get pass them and stay in our path? Isn't it easier for God just to tell us? Since He creates the heavens and the earth, since He knows all things. Would it be great that He just give us and answer? That is the fantasy of many people around today. They go around asking for "divine answer" from every culture and every religion. You see them in the temple, you see them in church asking "God Help!! Have you forgotten me?" But yet why did people rather believe in "divine answers" and not believe that the real answers were already long give to us?

Let's take Christianity as an example. Christian doctrines are base on the faith in the God of Isreal who sent Jesus His Son, fully man yet fully God, to earth to suffer and die on the cross to pay for the eternal debt of sin once and for all saving all who call upon His name and believe. The faith of God consist of trusting His provision and trusting that a Helper, the Holy Spirit was sent after Jesus acceeded to heaven, will help you in time of need. Well there is nothing wrong with the doctrine, however yet many fall into the "sin" of "overly-relying" on God. Well let me expand on that.

Fully relying on God is not wrong. But what I meant by "overly-relying" on God is like the following example. A young girl is having her exams. Although she studied very hard, when she went into the examation hall she panic and got a mental block. She couldn't answer any of the question and she panic even more. So she started to pray "Oh God help!! Give me Answers!!" Well you see, there is absolutely nothing wrong about praying to God in times of distress. However asking for help when the answers are already in your hand is kind of not what the bible would describe as "being more than a conquerer".

There was a day that Jesus was teaching by the sea. When evening came, He said to His disciples "Let us cross over to the other side." So Jesus and His disciples took a boat and went to the other side with other littles boats following. And out of the blue a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. However Jesus was sleeping. By then the disciples were all panicing and they asked each other "What should we do?" And they all looked and each other in vexed. Then a young man cried out "Jesus, Jesus would know what to do!!" So the disciples went around up and down, high and low looking for their teacher, Jesus. When they found Him sleeping in the stern, they decided to wake Him. They said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?" Now Jesus is a patient man. Jesus is a loving man. Jesus is a fatherly figure. As tired as He was, teaching for the whole day by the sea, upon such request by His beloved disciples, Jesus arose. He went out in that stormy night. He looked around. The wind was racking the sail, the wave was eating the boat. The crews on board are fanatically trying their best to scoop the water out of the boat trying to stay afloat. Jesus went up to the deck and He rebuked the wind there and then, and He said to the sea, "Peace, be still!" And immediately, the wind ceased and there was a great calm. Now the hero had done it again. There was great rejoicing! Everyone on board was praising God! Yet Jesus was not happy at all. He turned to His disciples and all that were on board, He interrupted the celebration and He said "Why are you so fearful? O you of little faith? How is it that you have no faith?"

So why is it a fatherly Jesus mad at the disciples for asking Him to help? The reason is very simple. Long after that day, the disciples were casting out demons but there was just one that overcome even the toughest, Simon Peter. So the demon possessed man was brought to Jesus. Then Jesus said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me." And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" So Jesus answered them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.'"

Many a times, the solutions for every problem were already given to us. Awaiting for us to pick up the authority to apply it on our lifes. Yet we fail to see that we are indeed more than conquerers! Like a baby, we are always asking for help. Well there is nothing wrong asking for help. But should there be a time when boyz become men? Should there be a time when men can finally pick up the authority and take dominant over what was already handed to him?

So what does all these have to do with a "quater life crisis" as in introduction you may ask. Well the reason is just as simple. Fears and anxiety are natural responses in the absence of love. "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment." Because "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

The answers to you quarter life crisis were already long in your hand. ~ L.O.V.E. Love. When you genuinely care about someone else, when you forget about self-seeking and seeking self. You will find the answer to your crisis...