Have a nice day.

March 30, 2006

When I’m feeling particularly rebellious, I pop the little white buds in my ears, click on my IPod and sing backup to rocker Jon Bon Jovi’s latest hit “Have a nice day.” It’s a true rebel’s anthem.
“…I ain’t gonna do what I don’t want to. I’m gonna live my life shining like a diamond, rollin’ with the dice, standin’ on the ledge to show the wind how to fly. When the world gets in my face, I say Have a nice day.”

It occurs to me, though, a rebel isn’t really a rebel anymore. And this rock anthem is, in reality, the theme line for a generation of young people being raised by our world. I see it everyday in the attitudes of my children and their friends. They won’t do what they don’t want to. They don’t want anyone to define what’s black or white. This deception permeates popular culture—music, movies, television programming—and it has a full head of steam.

We’re called to bring the truth to this new generation, but we have to be intentional about delivering it on their everyday “rebel” terms. In the words of the immortal greens keeper, Carl Spackler, “If I’m gonna catch this gopher, I gotta think like a gopher.” The last thing we want is to be perceived as being “in their face” and to have them say, “have a nice day.” All of us old school rebels know what that really means.

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