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It was reported on this programme yesterday that more of us have had our identity stolen than ever before. Cyber crime is up – and goods and services bought online by people pretending to be us. But the group who had experienced the fastest and most serious attack on their identity was those who are young. 25,000 people under 30 had had their identity stolen and for those under 21, the number who had been defrauded had risen by a third. Advice to young people was clear; don’t give too much away online. Your real friends already know where you live and when your birthday is. I felt really sorry when I read this story as it seemed to me it was the latest in a series of reports about the significant challenges facing many young people today. For the first time since 1945, people aged 18-34 are more likely to be back living with their parents than living with a partner, and their prospects of owning their own home are lower than previous generations. And there are often reports of low self-esteem among some young people who experience through social media the seemingly perfect, curated lives of their peers. I also listened to MP Mhairi Black who’s 22 and who doesn’t like the culture of Parliament. She’s challenged politicians not to talk down to younger people and after only 2 years in national politics is thinking of not standing again. Some older commentators mock millennials as the “snowflake generation” – over-praised and easily offended. And with the news saturated by Brexit, it’s important to remember that they also voted, by and large, to remain. But these same young people, when they’re asked, say that they love the flexibility and openness of modern society; they are energetic, hopeful and keen to make the world a better place. Religion is often seen as something that only older people are interested in. But Jesus was a young man when he took himself off in to the desert for 40 days and he gathered a group of energetic disciples around him too for three short tumultuous years before he died, still young, having changed the course of human history. Young people are not the society of tomorrow – but today. Not the church of tomorrow – but today. And for those of us who are older, the Christian season of Lent is a good time to remind ourselves of the youthful determination of Christ, being driven by the Spirit to test himself, accepting the vocation that was his; a good time to remind ourselves that we still have a young version of ourselves inside us who hoped for something deeper, something more from life. A good time, in the Spring, to remember that spiritually we’re all forever young.