Our Future

 Good afternoon, and welcome.

 Today, the wife and I attended the final chapel of the semester at Friends University here in Wichita.  We normally don’t attend those chapel services, which are held weekly.  We aren’t alumni, nor do we have any other connection to the university.  However, the final chapel service of the fall semester is an advent devotional, with the music provided by the Singing Quakers.  In the event you aren’t familiar with the Singing Quakers, they are a first class choir with a rich history.  They are truly a “class act,” if you’ll excuse that expression.

 Today was no exception.  With a mix of Bible reading, songs by the choir, and traditional carols sung by the audience, the thirty five or so minutes we were there was uplifting and fulfilling for me.  As I said, we have no other connections to the university, but truly enjoy this last chapel of the fall semester, as the choir and others put a lot of thought and work into this service.  We are grateful they open it to the public.

 But, there’s another reason why I like to go to events such as this.  As these young adults are singing and conducting the chapel service, I like to look at their faces and imagine something about their daily lives.  I think back to when I was about that age…what I was thinking and doing about then.

 I also think about the fact that some of these people may live to see the turn of the next century, or at the last live to see the final decades of this century.  These are also the people who will…and already are…helping shape society, government, education, and in fact the state of the world today.  These are the people who will be the decision-makers and movers of society.  These are the people who will bring humanity into the next decades.

 I don’t know any of these young adults.  However, as I look out on them, I am comforted to know that there are people of faith, of good will, and of good moral character in the world.  These are people of intelligence, drive and ambition, but also people who know what it means to love one’s neighbor.

 Now, I don’t pretend to believe that every last young adult I see in these chapel services are like who I just described.  Some will fail.  Some will be law breakers.  Some suffer from an intractable mental illness.  Others will somehow go off the deep end…so to speak…in later years.  I know that.  But I also know that there are plenty of these people who are just like I described…intelligent, driven, humane, humble, and loving.  And it brings me comfort as an older adult to know that the world may well NOT go to hell in a handbasket because of many of these ordinary individuals who come together in common cause and yes, in love for one-another…to do the right thing in the right way at the right time for the right reason.

 These people are our future.  And from the looks of it, what a bright future it appears to be.