Sitting here in limbo: The manifesto

My College roommate and I were sitting around one night years ago talking about the meaning of life. As we talked the song "Sitting Here in Limbo" by Jimmy Cliff came on. He turned to me and said, "If I were to write a book about my life right now that would be the title, "Sitting here in limbo". I knew immediately what he meant, and so do most college students and young adults.

The years after High School and well beyond are a time of uncertainty and disorientation for young people in our culture. Suspended between childhood and adulthood these are the quintessential "best of times and worst of times".

Finally free to determine their own future young people begin to navigate life on their own. Along with this new freedom come exciting possibilities but also fear and anxiety. Despite the romanticized depictions of young adulthood in movies and on tv this is not a carefree time. Young adults struggle with a dizzying number of choices about careers, relationships, money, and family. 

And yet precisely when they are most in need of guidance and support young adults are essentially left to their own devices, or forced to give up their newfound freedom for the lives their families choose for them. Those who attend College find more of a support system than those who don't but that only lasts for four years. 

This is an odd departure from the social safety net that surrounds young people before they reach adulthood. Sociologist Robert Wuthnow points out, "We provide day care centers, schools, welfare programs, family counseling, colleges, job training programs, and even detention centers as a kind of institutional surround-sound until young adults reach age 21, and then we provide nothing."  (After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion by Robert Wuthnow)

If only there were some group that would step forward to provide support, acceptance, and love to young adults when they most need it. It would be even better if that group was desperately in need of the passion and gifts that young adults need. 

Hey, that sounds kind of like the Church doesn't it?

If any group can understand the state of limbo young adults find themselves in it is the Church...a group of people suspended between what we once were and what we are becoming...a group struggling to understand its purpose in a world that no longer looks like it did back in the good old days.

And yet inexplicably there are very few connections between young adults and the Church. This blog is a conversation about why these two groups, who have so much to offer one another, are almost complete strangers. Hopefully it is an opportunity for the Church to better understand young adults, and for young adults to better understand the Church.

I'm of the opinion that these commonalities between young adults and the Church are more than mere coincidence. I think God is up to something here. Limbo can be a disorienting and frightening place or an opportunity for transformation. I hope the conversation here can nudge us toward understanding, meaning, and hope.