What have our kids been experiencing over the course of the last 12 months? What has it felt like to grow up in a Covid-infected world where our everyday routines have changed?
A member of our current CPYU Faith and Culture Cohort, Jordan Martin, sent me a link to this short film, Numb, by 15-year-old Canadian Liv McNeil. It offers some perspective we might not otherwise have. It’s Covid through the eyes of a teenager.
Hans Rookmaaker, art critic and Christian scholar, “listened” to art in order to hear what the culture was saying about itself. Rookmaaker’s comments in his book Modern Art and the Death of a Culture, while written in specific reference to modern art, apply equally well to the artistic work of our children and teens. . .
“This art is the work of your neighbors, your contemporaries, [your children,] human beings who are crying out in despair for the loss of their humanity, their values, their lost absolutes, groping in the dark for answers. It is already late, if not too late, but if we want to help our generation we must hear their cry. We must listen to them as they cry out from their prison, the prison of a universe which is aimless, meaningless, and absurd.”
Listening to their culture opens our ears and eyes to the reality and depth of the needs of young people. And once we know the reality, we can communicate the gospel in ways that can be heard and understood.
So. . . give Numb a look and a listen. Then, show it to your students and ask them how it might speak for them. . .