1993 West Church Street, Freeport, IL 61032
Church 815-235-1993 School 815-232-3511 CDC 815-232-3443
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Number 376
DEADLINES: THOUGHTS about the Week
Guest Article There is a group to which I
have been erroneously associated for years…and it’s time I set the record
strait. I am not yet a Baby Boomer. A Baby Boomer is a term
commonly used to refer to the generation which demographers have identified with
birth years between 1946 to 1964. Kathleen Casey, according to the record books,
was born one second after midnight on January 1, 1946 and is generally regarded
as the First Baby Boomer. Baby Boomers have gotten a
lot of attention over the years and there is much more to come.
They presently make up the lions share of the political, cultural,
industrial and academic leadership in the United States. Bill Clinton and George
W. Bush...born within sixty days of each other in mid-1946...are the first and
second Baby Boomer presidents…and their careers in office illustrate the wide,
often diverging, spectrum of values and attitudes espoused by this largest
American generational group to date. Those first Boomers were
one year old when Howdy Doody first dangled on a TV screen the size of a dinner
plate; they were seventeen when John F. Kennedy was assassinated…23 when they
converged on Woodstock and 36 for the start of the great bull market of the
1980’s. The truth is, there was
a baby boom begun in 1946 and it lasted for 19 years…a wave of fecundity that
added 78 million people to the world. Those are record numbers for American
births! In just one year (1946), 3.4 million Americans were born…a jump from
2.8 million the year before…and an increase from 2.4 million a decade earlier.
An average of 4.1 million Americans were born each year over those 19 years!!!
Indeed, babies were booming!!! And now these Boomers are
starting to age. We are told they will never grow old...they will just age. And,
indeed, considering just the age of these Boomers does not tell you exactly at
what life stage they are. There are boomers who are brand-new dads at 59...and
others who are grandparents at the same age!
A slew of these Boomers are now 60...a major milestone for those who
vowed to stay forever young. Some turned 62 this year.
They have cycled through several life stages (the latest buzzword for
consultants)...passing through hippie and yuppie to a new phrase for which a new
word has yet to be coined: abbies...perhaps
for aging baby boomers. And the reinvention of the Boomer goes on...just as
manufacturers and marketers promote sound-amplifying telephones, inch lower SUVs
(don’t tell anyone), rhinestone-studded reading glasses, and 0-to-3 sizing
systems for those who like a little room but don’t want to own up to being a
size 16. Many years ago the
now-boomers quietly sang along with Lennon and McCartney: The answer to this one-time
rhetorical question has become increasingly clear over the years...and it is
simply...Yes! It doesn’t matter what
life stage you are in or what generation you have come from...the absolute truth
of our existence is that we were all
created by God and all have purpose
and meaning for life found outside ourselves. For God has come to us and has
found us in the dark wood of our selfishness and sin (no matter when we were
born) and convicts us by the power of His Holy Spirit of our need for Him and
the salvation He offers through His saving Gospel. So whether you are a Baby
Boomer or not...an echo boomer or not a
Gen-Xer or not...a millennial or not...we ALL have the same need and the same
solution for that need found in God’s love for us through Jesus Christ.
That’s not only a nice thing to know...it’s very reassuring and gives us a
taste of that peace that passes all understanding. Adapted from an article
by Pastor Richard Engel. (This week’s devotion was supplied by our Senior Pastor, Willis Schwichtenberg.) May Jesus Christ be praised! In
Christ, + CALENDAR FOR THE
NEXT 14 DAYS +
TUESDAY, November 18
WEDNESDAY, November 19
THURSDAY, November 20
FRIDAY, November 21
SATURDAY, November 22
SERVING
– Sunday, November 23
SUNDAY, November 23
MONDAY, November 24
TUESDAY, November 25
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