---

One night each week, the Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon writes comedic thank-you notes to those who have “contributed” to his life. While that bit always makes me laugh, it often serves a truth-telling function as well. This is my thank-you note to millennials—minus the comedy.

Thank you, millennials, for your openness to kingdom possibilities for your lives. You have an expansive vision of what Jesus is doing in the world and wants to do through you, along with the courage to live your vision. It doesn’t matter to you that it has not been done before. New things are the lifeblood of the Christian tradition: sing a new song; God making all things new; we are new creations. Your newness is breathing life into the status quo.

Thank you, millennials, for embracing freedom from convention to societal norms. This detachment from the dominant cultural values is exactly what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote, “Do not be conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2). Some criticize your lack of careerism. I find it refreshing. Surely James, John, Peter, and Andrew were ridiculed by the establishment for leaving their nets (stable career) to follow Jesus. It worked out well for them.

Thank you, millennials, for giving priority to relationships. In so doing your lives are becoming trinitarian, modeled after the loving community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You locate or relocate to be with the people who are important to you. The founder of Western monasticism, Benedict of Nursia, introduced to his monks the ideal of stability in relationships as equal to the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. The church and the culture are lost when it comes to relational integrity and faithfulness. You can show us the way.

Thank you, millennials, for putting passion ahead of practicality. You remind us that common sense is walking by sight, not by faith. Faith is uncommon sense out of which passion flows. So many of you are willing to work jobs you are overqualified for in order to nurture and follow your heart’s passion. You refuse to compromise what God has put in you. The apostle Paul was at the top of the religious food chain, a “Hebrew of Hebrews,” when he started following Jesus and became the apostle to the Gentiles. Where is the common sense in that?

Thank you, millennials, for making justice a life- style rather than a hobby. The neighbor you love in the name of Jesus could just as well be in Zimbabwe as next door. You don’t need to volunteer for a non- profit organization when you can befriend and advocate for the powerless directly. In addition to making a donation, you seek out ways to make justice. Whereas the Good Samaritan saw the need of one person and met it, you ask, “Why is this person lying here in this condition?” and take steps to address the cause, meeting the needs of many.

Thank you, millennials, for pushing me toward greater honesty and vulnerability. You have very little pretense, and you put up with even less. This is not easy for me because it makes me choose between humility and self-protection (pride). You want to know me more than I want to be known. I would rather live in the world of ideas, principles, and doctrines. You want to know my hopes, desires, failures, struggles—all of the things that make me who I am. As I let you know me, I know myself more deeply. The happy result is what Augustine and Cal- vin both asserted: I only know God to the extent that I know myself, and I only know myself to the extent that I know God.

Thank you, millennials, for being who you are. You tell me the truth and you make me laugh. You may not get a note from Jimmy Fallon, but I am grateful for you.