In this year’s January issue of National Geographic there appeared the following title, “The Search for Life.” The article dealt with the search for life on the planet Mars by the two Viking landers. Complex and intricate scientific experiments were carried out by the landers to determine if any life similar to that found on our planet Earth existed on Mars. But let us draw our attention to the title of that article and not the article itself.
Considering the title alone, one could write numerous articles, each with a different meaning. Therefore, we are limiting ourselves to one of them which today speaks to us as young people of God, actively involved in the search for life. We will, in this article, hope to explain the search and the life that we hope to find. Obvious to us is that the search is performed to find something and that which we hope to find we call life.
To begin with, in the performance of the search for life, we as young people would fail completely and never reach our goal. That is, in ourselves, as young people we are unable to search for life. That may seem surprising because in our youth we have limitless energies to search for life. The truth is, though, that we would not even care to search for life. And if we did, that which we would call life would be no life at all, because we would not know what is life. Our need is to be taught how to search for life. We must learn through the instruction of a teacher. The teacher must know what is that life we hope to find and even more so, that teacher must possess in himself that life.
At this point, let us focus our attention on the young people of our churches who search for their own kind of life, a life of rebellion. We all willingly fall into this horrendously intolerable situation too frequently. Who THEN is our teacher? WE can begin by pinning the rap on a variety of teachers. For instance, television, radio, movies (which unfortunately some of us attend, not realizing that we are hardening our hearts against God), magazines, the world, establishments where we watch the world dance to the tune of the devil (and for some, joining with them in their sin), fellow saints caught in sin, and even the devil himself. We must truthfully say that all of these facts are no lie. But we are writing about we who search for our own kind of life, a life of rebellion. That means that we ourselves are our own best teacher and the life we seek is our own rebellion. Our rebellion is a ruthless, destructive, chaotic life in which we seek the pleasure of the flesh, our own self gain and the building up of ourselves at the cost of our friends. Therefore, although there are many who teach us a life of rebellion, we are to blame for our own terribly selfish, prideful rebellion.
Who then will teach us to perform the search for life that we need to do, in order that we as young people may live in obedience to our faithful covenant God? Now more clearly we are recognizing what the life is for which we are to search. In fact, our teacher and the life we seek are the same. Who else can we turn to but Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Dumb idols of wood and stone cannot teach us. Our own golden calves cannot teach us. The world and the devil cannot teach us. Besides there is no life in them. Only through Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, the Lamb of God, are we enabled to actively perform the search for life.
We must seek Jesus Christ, for He is our life. But, only by the Spirit of Christ within our hearts do we seek Him who is the possessor and giver of eternal life. We in ourselves cannot seek eternal life. We cannot seek Christ in our own strength. Christ seeks us. Christ seeks his own who are dead in sin and makes them dead to sin, through the blood of the cross. The Good Shepherd gives us his own life, for we are his sheep (John 10:14-16). Christ gives us eternal life in the kingdom of our God. Christ possesses both our body and soul (Heid. Cat. Q & A 1). We belong to Him and the life that we now live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son of God (Gal. 2:20). Christ has already given to us that which we seek for, for He has given Himself for us, that we might be heirs of eternal life.
When we know God gives us saving grace, faith to believe, good works to perform, and eternal life, then we get on our knees to pray to our Father in Heaven. In those prayers we will most assuredly thank Him for all the blessings of salvation wrought for us by the death of the Son of God. Then, too, we see that there is no need to search for something which we have not found, because that which we are searching for has already been given to us. We no longer search with our earthly eyes, but search with our God-given spiritual eyes, exercising our faith. That is, we now seek to know, by faith, Him who has given us eternal life. Therefore, we must pray, pray, pray, pray without ceasing. Do we pray enough as young people? Do we know what true prayer consists of? An intellectual knowledge of our salvation is not enough. We must be active in our faith, we must pray alone and together for God’s grace, mercy, and peace to be upon us. We must come under the preaching of God’s word that we may know Christ crucified.