A Nation On Fire - Letter to the London Rioters

To The London Rioters,

           

             Well, props to you. With your Blackberry hacking and organizational skills you have started quite a fire. Both literal and figurative. I suppose I don't have to tell you that the world is looking at you and wondering if you have gone mad. Why else would you do this? Loot you neighbors stores, and steal from your own community. Rise up in masses to tackle an unidentified cause. Sure, it started with the killing of Mark Duggan in Tottenham. But, that isn't what this is about.

            You are the youth. A generation rising. People like you have always pushed the boundaries and championed causes. The settling of the Americas, wars for freedom, created new societies that demanded more for humanity. Young men and women have always changed the world. You are no different. It is in the destiny of the young to create a new story for the world. Their story that they will pass on to their children & outline the victories achieved in their window of time. But you are different.

           You don't have hope and vision. You have passion, but your cause is self serving. This is what happens when you live without purpose. I know that your future must seem bleak. Economic crisis, no resources available to fund your student education, a crashing job market...and lets be frank. When we see the famine in Somalia, the trafficking of people globally, the kidnapping and abuse of innocent children, corrupt CEOs screwing it up for a bunch of every day people & families breaking down... it seems a bit too much. It's all to hell in a handbasket anyway, right? 

          So, why not watch reality TV on that flatscreen you stole while everything crashes around you. Maybe we never told you that you could be more and expect more. Perhaps we were too busy wondering which celebrity was shacking up with who, that we forgot to tell you that you were made for a purpose greater than yourself. That you really could change the world.

          Yet here we are. You have set a nation on fire. But, I don't just mean the fires you started on buses and police stations. There is a fire igniting that you can't see yet. Blazing towards you with an urgent and compassionate speed. See, when a nation is in peril, the people of God do not cower. They rise up. The Church is rising up around the world on your behalf. Crying out that God would mend a broken nation. Believing that you would not be a hopeless and purposeless generation, but the generation who sees greater things than those who have gone before you ever dreamed of. 

         As the people of God, we know that when we pray...God moves. Be warned that we are praying. Maybe the world is in awe of all hell breaking loose in your nation. Just wait till all Heaven breaks loose.

You won't know what hit you. Layers of pain and anger will melt away, love will fill cracks of bitterness and hate. You will love your neighbor more than yourself. You will be filled with joy and your streets will be made glad. You will bring a blessing wherever you go. 

         Your lives will be spent on advancing a cause that will never die. Your passionate voices will meld into a battle cry that is the continuation of thousands of voices for thousands of years "Prepare the way of the Lord..." And you will live in fullness. A generation that once was visionless transforming the unreached and neglected of the earth. You have destiny within you, but not destiny for destruction. Destiny for hope. You will know Love.

        You think you have started fires of defiance. In truth, you have started fires of revival & they cannot be put out.