Truth For Youth

You who are young, be happy while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

Ecclesiastes 11:9

The advice the writer of Ecclesiastes gives us is to live to the full while you are young. Do not be afraid of the natural exuberance of youth. Do not let anyone discourage you from enjoying the abundance of physical vitality that you have. Take full advantage of your capacity for imagination and adventure. Too many young people seem to feel the Bible tells them to fold their hands, curtail their impulses, and act like old people, but it does not. It recognizes the love of romanticism in youth and it urges them to take full advantage of it while they can.

He also says to, Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see. Take life as it comes. Do not feel fretful and envious over the opportunities others have, but lay hold and use the opportunities that come to you and be glad for them. Exercise, within consistent limitations, the independence of youth. Do not let someone else run your life; walk in the sight of your eyes and in the ways of your heart. You are to make the choices.

But now there is a third principle, Know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Do not misread that. It is uttered in the same spirit of encouragement to discover all that life has for you as the other things. It is not meant as a threat. God is not saying, All right, go ahead and enjoy yourself, but just wait, I'll get you in the end! No, he is saying, Remember, there is one more aspect of life that is very important. Life is too big for you to handle on your own. At the end, each of us must give an account of ourselves, and the certainty of that points up the need for an adequate guide right now. So the conclusion is given in chapter 12, verse 1, Remember your Creator in the days of your youth. Surrender yourself to the only adequate guide to life while you are young. Invite him squarely into the center of your life right now, in the days of your youth.

Right here is the glory of the good news about Jesus Christ. The gospel tells us that Christ is the one behind the secrets of the universe. Here stands the only one capable of rightly motivating and directing youth along the perilous path of life. In Jesus Christ youth finds an answer, a key to its padlock, a solution to its riddles. To know Jesus Christ and to open your heart to his control is to discover that he gives the fullest sense of independence possible for a person to have. He sets us free from any lesser level of control. We give ourselves to the one who is the master of the universe and thereby discover the secrets of our own natures. He alone can unlock these secrets since he is the Creator. If we give ourselves to any lesser level of control, we find ourselves slaves of that to which we have yielded. Give yourself to pleasing the crowd, and you discover you have become a slave to an insatiable master. You are imprisoned and cannot find the fulfillment for which you long. But give yourself to Christ and make yourself his slave, and you find liberty.

Lord, you are the Master of life. I pray that young people may discover all that you have hidden away in their hearts and lives, and that all the glorious possibilities of their youth may be realized as they give themselves to you. Amen.