Jefferson Bethke recently asked pastor and New York Times bestselling author Tim Keller, “What is the most encouraging and discouraging trait you see in the millennial generation?” Here is his response:

I agree that there is a heightened interest in community, talking about community, or anything labeled community.

I think young people are desirous of community and yea more; they are desirous of what’s been broken and missing in their generation more than any other generation before them. They are desirous for family.

Keller made some striking statements:

“The younger generation doesn’t want to make the sacrifices that enable community to happen, which means you have to limit your options. You can’t just travel everywhere. You can’t just move every two years. You can’t just live any way you want.”

“So many of the commitments and the sacrifices you’ve got to make in order to be part of a community and the curtailments of the freedom that goes with that, young people don’t want. So they want community yet they’re not willing to pay the price. I think that’s both the best and the worst about your generation.”

So what about you?

Are you willing to “limit your options”? Or are you afraid that if you limit your options you’ll be missing out?

The truth is that either way you’ll be missing out.

If you decide not to limit your options, then you’ll have the freedom to do what you want, when you want, how you want, the way you want – but you will not have community that is a family.

If you do decide to limit your options, you’ll get the opportunity to have community that’s a family – but you will not have the freedom to do what you want, when you want, how you want, the way you want.

And by the way, there’s no third option of having community that is family without the cost of limiting the freedom to do what you want, when you want, how you want, the way you want. Keller’s right. True community that functions like family demands commitment that costs.

So ultimately you have to decide what’s more important to you.

Are you more concerned with your interests or the interests of Christ (Phil 2:21)?