Today’s younger generation is suffering from the get-rich-quick syndrome, which if not handled well, may result in a disaster.
Life, as designed by God, is a process and not an event. Everything in life starts somewhere, and needs time to grow, as the Bible puts it, from one glory to another (2 Cor 3:18).
But because the world is moving very fast, the younger generation also wants to move fast in everything. But the laws of life do not operate in the same manner; you cannot jump the gun. The Bible says in Job 8:7 that though your beginning was small, your latter end would increase abundantly.
We need to train our younger people to be patient and allow themselves to go through the process. The scriptures teach that we should not despise humble beginnings.
The evidence to the fact that this spirit of get rich quick is rooted in the younger generation is the manner in which betting is thriving in our society. Betting is about luck not work. It is misleading our young people.
I once listened to a young man, whose father is a very successful businessman, being interviewed on a television show. He was asked if he ever gets broke, being a son of a millionaire. His response impressed me. He said his father taught him that money is earned.
My thoughts as a pastor and a mentor are that we need to cultivate values in the lives of our young people. Values like hard work, patience and modesty are lacking.
As we encourage our generation to dream big, we must also mentor them into the process of achieving their dreams. As the saying goes Rome was not built in a day.
This wrong mentality of get rich quick has resulted in moral decay. Scripture says in 1 Tim 6:10 that the love of money (doing anything to get it) is the root of all evil. Also, Proverbs 21:28 says that the desire of the sluggish kills him because his hands refuse to labour.
If you are not ready to labour for it, don’t desire it or else you will look for dubious means of acquiring it.
Part of what we need to educate our young people on is knowing what their needs in life are.
God provides for our needs. Needs are necessities. There are certain things that are not necessities. Our young people can go for them thinking there’s fulfilment in them only to finally realise it’s all vanity. They must realise that you can be full but not fulfilled.
I once listened to a speaker in a business conference saying he has cars in his compound that he rarely drives; that some of his vehicles are begging him to drive them. To me that is unnecessary. Scripture in 1 Cor 10:23 says all things are permissible for me but all things are not beneficial.
Finally, what is the remedy for this? Mentorship. We need to mentor our young people in the godly and right ways of life.
Senior pastor at Chrisco Church, Awasi, Kisumu
