Among the post-college twenty-something Christians that I know, there are several top recurring issues and struggles we tend to face. These include finding a mate or life partner, career direction (or more likely, lack thereof) and understanding or finding the meaning or purpose of our lives (and yes, those issues tend to be wrapped up together.)

Another one I've noticed and discovered upon talking with my peers is the sense of loss of spirituality/faith from our college years - or at the very least, a noticeable reduction in our passion and commitment - and the disappointment or angst that tends to result from that sense of loss. I say "sense of loss" because it's entirely possible that some of us never had that spirituality or faith in the first place. Or at least, that's what it may seem to us now that we look back and wonder - was it real? Was it just a product of my idealism and my environment?

I remember a speaker one time asking the audience - are you a thermostat or a thermometer? That is, do you actively make the change around you, or do you passively accept and become like those around you and adopt their values and goals, for good or bad?

It seems, more often than not, that we are the themometers. Some of those changes are minor and innocent, and perhaps only external. For instance, a friend that begins work at a retail clothing store or as a hairstylist begins to sport new fashionable and trendy outfits or hairdos. Other changes are more severe and detrimental, and tend to be internal. Obsession with our own "advancement", whatever that may mean. The way we view the world and our place in it. Cynicism, materialism, greed.

I'm rather ambivalent about the changes I've detected in myself. Not all of them have been bad. But I do suffer from the sense of loss of faith. And there are moments of despair as I realize that I'm powerless to change myself for the better. And while I believe that God can change me, I'm afraid that I won't cooperate with him. That, instead, my rebelliousness (in the form of apathy, lack of discipline, lack of hope) will be what overcomes.

God help our generation.