MILLENNIAL

Happy New Year Everyone.

Here’s to a brand-new start in this millennial. But what is a millennial?

Millennial is word we hear used to describe a particular group of people.

That group are those who reach young adulthood in the early 21st century.      

Also known as Generation Y, Gen Y, or simply millennials.

Researchers and popular media describe them as the first of a global generation.

It’s said, they are a highly advanced group of trendsetters with fresh ideas/insights.

Merriam-Webster dictionary also refers to that generation as millennials, but it’s the 2nd definition they offered.

The 1st definition for Millennial according to Merriam-Webster is the geopolitical specification of the millennium – this identification of the New Jerusalem with a particular place and people – was rare, even in a time of millennial fervor.

Hmmm. That’s a lot to take in, especially about New Jerusalem, and a rare people.

Let’s just let that settle for now, and we’ll come back to it later.

Oxford Language defines Millennial as relating to a period of a thousand years.

A thousand years ago! What did the world look like just a few hundred years ago?

The world population in 2020 was 7.7 billion people. In 2000, it was 6.1 billion people.

But in 1776, almost 250 years ago, when America first became a nation the world population was 800,000,000. That’s more than 8 times less the population in 2020.

On that prestigious day in 1776, Edward Rutledge, 26, (like a Gen Y’er) was the youngest person to sign the Declaration of Independence.

If that was 250 years ago, then what was the world like some 2,000 years ago?

In year one, as they call it, over two thousand years ago, the world population was 150,000,000.

These calculations are all based according to our calendar that we use today.

Did you know that our calendar, the Gregorian Calendar as it is called, was named after Pope Gregory, and based upon the birth of the first millennial?

Yes, the 1st millennial. His actual birth started a millennial, his name is Jesus.

All time as we know it, revolves around His time.

Our reference to time, refers to His time. Our life is based on His life. Jesus!

This controversial figure whose life is surmised as either a lunatic, liar, or Lord.

Founder of Christianity, the most widely practiced religion in the world. Jesus!

Who was this millennial and what was he doing back then?

Around two thousand years ago Jesus was 22 years old.

The Book of Luke says that he was about 30 years old when he began teaching.

It’s been recorded that he was a carpenter by trade prior to that time.

I would image that as a carpenter he served the customary 7 years or so of apprenticeship before moving out on his own.

So, I picture him somewhere chopping, measuring, cutting, and preparing wood.

He spent time, seeing what things could become, from what they currently were.

I believe if he were a millennial here today, he would be doing the same thing.

Picturing what could be made from this pandemic, the strained ethnic relationships, the governmental challenges, the threat of war, and all the hard stuff in every day.

Let’s take a page out of his book and see things for what they came become.

In this new year, let’s all have a Millennial attitude toward the future.

See that beggar as a human being who needs food, not judgement, the addict as someone we can assist in getting or creating services for.

That homeless person as a program to help others like them, and that ending, although tragic as it may be, let’s see that ending as a chance for a new beginning.

Let last year, be last year. Good or bad it’s over. This is a new year.

See yourself as a trendsetter, made in the image of God, a millennial change agent for this new age.

We might be those millennials they referenced who prepared for a New Jerusalem.

This is a Thompson Truth.