THE GOD WHO SEEKS: AND A GENERATION IN HIDING

Genesis 3vs9:

‘Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

1 Kings 19vs11:

‘but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake’

Certainly, since the beginning of time, man has pursued a spiritual game of hide and seek with God. After the advent of creation, once God had set His righteous boundaries and shared His protective heart, man set off to traverse paths of his own, unaware that in doing so, he developed a self-righteousness that took him away from God. Beginning with Adam, who through disobedience hid from God, this spiritual game has unfolded, and even characters like Elijah - though with a sincere heart - found himself hiding in a cave.

This spiritual game of hide and seek continues, until today, we share the world with a generation that hides from God in caves of its own making, enjoying temporal fruits that only minister to the flesh. And rather than noises of wind and earthquakes, it wilfully drowns out the voice of God through a crescendo of moods and messages, all in its media and literature. Even the tones of its educational curricula speak loudly to muffle the divine.

Here, hidden from God by this noisy barrage, it proclaims perverted truths, distorting the sanctity of the person and the sacred union between them - unaware of the depth of its spiritual state. Yet here it meets a God who seeks, and a God who clothes – both without coercion or force: He does not need these. For in His sovereignty, He waits for a willing response, pursuing always with righteous truth and through the death of His Son, such that salvation is always possible.

Genesis 3vs3:

“but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it…”

No doubt, media and literature have always been able to challenge conservative values, but today something far more explicit exists in the culture of this generation. Its pursuits seem unashamedly earthly and secular, and as such, it wilfully hides from God, tying itself to the midst of a cave with sensual fruits and messages. The music scene provides a good start, and current artists flaunt lyrics like:

“You want me, I want you, baby.”

“I kissed a girl and I liked it” - (sung by a girl)

“I have been a (G), throw up the (L), sex in the (A-M), uh / I can put you in first class.”

“Material girl! I want Chanel Nine boots.”

“It's about damn time, turn up the music, let's celebrate.”

Within such lyrics lie the morally loose themes feeding the ears and hearts of this generation, predisposing them to loud and hollow truths. Some songs are so imposing that it is difficult not to feel like you’re being punched in the gut. And with such noise, you would think these songs have something important to say. Yet, as a current song announces, “My clothes are off, I’m comin’ over to your place”, there seems little cause for concern. Really? It is hard to think of lyrics more banal and baser than these, and perhaps greater volume is employed only to hide this lack of substance. But sadly, there exists something quite desperate in all of the noise, and the lyrics betray a collective cry for help for a spiritual vacuum that is not being filled.

Naturally, such lyrics provide only a small fraction of the material available. Hosting a local sports event, much energy was spent filtering the playlist to ensure songs were clean and decent. As one was left to play - innocuously titled ‘Pink Pony Club’ - the marketing manager ran up to stop it. Apparently, the song had very little to do with pink ponies and far more to do with distorted liberties and the expression of sexual desires. Who would have thought? But employing a person solely to field song choice clearly means that more of these lyrics exist than fewer. And with such mass production, they equally expose a generation desperate for temporal messages; not occasionally, but as its cultural staple diet.

Reinforcing these messages are the music videos. One such video depicts an artist, dressed in red, descending into a sort of demonic underworld where she goes on to celebrate depravity. With as much flaunting as is possible in a 3-minute video, she dances provocatively with what look like possessed characters, surrounded by symbols of flesh and death.

The melodies of these songs, too, arrive with very breathy verses, fostering rhythms more hypnotic than lyrical. A current melody repeats a phrase more than 40 times, gaining its audience with a highly provocative message, and ending with one person in another person’s apartment. In all of this, the message is that the flesh must be ministered to; it is the penultimate god and the earth its only kingdom. With such choruses, this generation dances at the edge of its cave, oblivious to any need for spiritual nourishment. And as a current song sings, “The night time is the right time, I wanna dance in the dark” it seems quite happy to remain here. In such a place, all the spiritual lights remain off, and this generation continues its life very distant from the hope of transcendence.

Similar themes and messages are found in the literary crevices of its cave. The anime and manga comics reveal highly explicit material, masked, of course, by the vacuous smiles of cover characters all sharing the front with ‘graphic content’ stickers. While geared towards children and teens, a large collection of these books reveal adult themes and appeal to extremely carnal desires: girls show off half-buttoned blouses and tight skirts, adopting poses that employ very little of the imagination. Many of these images are coupled with characters who laugh rambunctiously, depicting some of the contemporary musical artists without a care in the world and with no authority over their lives – independence is a prized possession in this generation. Yet walking through a bookstore, it was interesting to note the placement of these books. One such book, covered in blood and pictures of demons, sits right next to ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ – it looked a bit like Harley Quinn next to Forrest Gump. Sadly, in searching for something harmless, kids will no doubt find themselves drawn to something very different. A younger part of this generation, then, is slowly fed the same fruit, all of which gives it a palette for sensual, terrestrial messages.

But all of this fleshly fruit and corporeal noise isn’t confined to comics alone, and mainstream novels do as good a job at tethering this generation to its cave. Perusing these books, it seems that values like goodness and truth, or any themes of transcendence, are left to older classics, and characters celebrating more material or fleshly themes are praised: “I am yours, and there’s no law or rule in this world that will change that”, says one novel. Another bestseller reads, “I part my lips, and he consumes my world.” Everything is here and now, and the material world remains all there is. While these represent a very small collection of quotes; as top sellers, they provide a small glimpse at what this generation is really after.

In addition to their shallower plots, they exhibit a plump collection of disillusioned and fractured protagonists, all navigating life through an existential gaze, desperate to find wholeness, sought often by feeding lusts. Characters seem distant from God, quick to indulge fleshly appetites and just as quick to shun spiritual truths - and the fact that one such novel has become the fastest-selling paperback of all time, with over 160 million copies sold, reveals the immediacy with which these books are sought. A line like, ‘I gasp, and I'm Eve in the Garden of Eden, and he's the serpent, and I cannot resist’ is about as close to any biblical truth in this book and it lends itself to an idea that the serpent is a friend rather than a foe. Good and evil are blurred so that the sensual appetite is allowed, and rather than deny the flesh, let it acquiesce. The book reveals a union between two people that is flippant, violent, and driven solely by the sexual desires of its protagonist. In such a cave, bedecked with such literature, this generation removes the remnants of godly truth, replacing them with a reverence for immediate corporeal desires.

Sadly, even in school curricula the messages are moving towards shallower, temporal topics, and as a rigorously planned syllabus, reveals a wilful removal of the hope of transcendence. A good place to start is the Life Orientation syllabus - that subject responsible for the souls of its youth. Topics reveal such themes as pornography, gender diversity, self-harm, and, now in an updated edition; fourplay. No doubt, in very certain contexts, these may provide worthwhile discussions, but their gravity is certainly lost on a group of adolescents who sensationalize ideas before considering them. In any case, what sort of teacher, and certainly not in co-ed schools, would feel the urge to launch into the benefits of stimulation? With such themes, all sorts of skewed ideas about humanity are promulgated, attaching this generation to ideas very distant from Godly design. Worse still, these themes are presented as rites of passage, normalizing the idea that all must go through them, rather than showing them for what they are: sad, but contingent realities. Through their appeal to fleshly, individual empowerment, such themes exacerbate a fixation on self and confirm a generation thirsty for the ideals of self-appraisal and self-affirmation, least because, as it rejects the affirmation of God, it must find it elsewhere.

The English syllabus is as revealing, and is leaning towards topics that dismantle older, spiritual values. A good comb through the themes and intents of the prescribed texts shows them painting institutions like Christianity and fatherhood as fanatical, oppressive things, and love as an impulse, rather than a value that comes from God. Most come with the intent to deconstruct grander narratives, and while schools must encourage critical analysis, the texts never present the nobler sides of God or the fruits of a belief in transcendence. Even the prescribed poetry arrives to attack ideas of spiritual authority. Completing one in class, the last line reads, ‘Man can live on bread alone’, and while poetry is creative by nature - and schools perhaps secular - here lies the summation of where the syllabus is going: to parts of a cave where transcendent and spiritual truth is corrupted, and godly institutions reduced to bigoted slogans and degrading stereotypes. Here the word of God is ridiculed until eventually He is proved wrong.

Genesis 3vs5:

“For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

With limited messages about goodness, love, kindness, or humility – all the values whose source is God – this generation hides tethered to the inside of its cave, and spiritually empty. In place of transcendent food, it feeds on temporal fruits, which only minister to fleshly appetites. A generation so bent on these ideas develops truths not only contrary to the righteousness of God but those that try to usurp Him. Because in its cave, it requires an authority, and without God, this generation must play His part. As such, it develops a perverted game of good and evil, reinventing the sanctity of the individual and the sacred union between them, and, in the process, creating other gods to worship.

Psalm 139vs13 – 16:

‘For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb’
‘I am fearfully and wonderfully made’

‘Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.’

On the walls of local buildings, read countless advertisements for abortion. Words like “quick” and “same day” make the whole procedure a cold, clinical thing, betraying the idea of a generation that cherishes its unborn. A generation that walks with God places value on the person, least because it values the image of God and subscribes to the intrinsic worth of His workmanship. In this sense, the human being is different from the animal. But a generation assuming Gods place blurs good and evil, and in such a cave, other things must become sacred. Through this generations love for all things material - strengthened by the value it gives to those who shout the loudest - freedom is granted first to those who can speak for it and not to those who must die because of its consequences. And while such human tragedies unfold, pockets of this generation meet along the banks of estuaries, fighting for crustaceans like the mud prawn—making it difficult not to view both realities with a kind of incredulity. There is as much to tell about a generation through the life it protects as the life it chooses to ignore.

Now firmly on a road where its new systems define sanctity, this generation traverses its cave in a curious fight for rights, and - as its mudprawn - the rights of animals have come to the fore. Yet there is something more sinister than noble in the whole thing, and a divinity has been granted to animals, unveiling an eerie sentimentality. To bolster these creeds, this generation changes its language, and it is not uncommon to hear human terms being used for things like pets. In conversation, I was intrigued to hear the owner of two pets refer to them as ‘her children’ and her as ‘their mother’. (She left work early one day to care for her ‘children’, going as far as to say that she would die for them.) This was not an activist but a perfectly normal mother, waiting to pick up her (human) children from school, and who, by that stage, I felt slightly sorry for. And while, certainly, we are to protect our animals, there hides in these anecdotes an unsettling tone, and one which reveals a generation dictating new gods through an erosion of the divine scale of nature.

As revealing was a collaborative learning effort, where environmental ideas now took centre stage. The goal of these presentations was to advocate for earthly citizenship, and human themes were not forthcoming. Objectively, the presentations were excellent, but when humanity began to present an obstacle towards a healthy environment, and warnings relegating the value of human existence were given, it was difficult not to sense another new god entering the room. A day later, to test the truth of these sentiments, a group exercise of 20 students was run, only to present results confirming my initial beliefs. Given a list of three things – environment, animal, and human life – the simple question was: out of the three, which holds more value? (‘Value’ was agreed to mean ‘worth.’) Every student listed environment first, animals second, and human life third.

Certainly, without ill intent on the part of the students - understanding that one answer doesn't determine a whole belief - the overall result can only suggest a generation where value means utility, and thus, where statements like ‘it depends on the age of the person’ begin to make sense. In such a cave, the truth of being made in the image of God denotes little to no value at all because, as a spiritual idea, it presents no immediate use. The environment, however, provides sustenance and a place to live; pets provide comfort and love. And, while both must be tended to, it remains difficult to comprehend how they can usurp the human being - how such powerful scriptures revealing man as both fearfully and wonderfully made; that he is known even before he is formed - how these can become discarded truths. It can only be that, as a generation hides from God it must, in His place, create its own gods to worship. And such things have happened before.

When Moses left his people, climbing to the top of Mt Sinai to receive the moral character of God, his absence proved frustrating to a people governed by immediacy. With a delayed return, the worship of a holy God was replaced with reverence for a new one – a golden calf, far more visible and pleasing to the eyes. All the deliverance, provision, healing, and miracles done by a sovereign and loving God were now ascribed to a golden image, fashioned by the hands of a rebellious people. Much the same is happening in this generation: as the true God provides little use for the flesh, His value diminishes, and when this happens, new gods must be concocted. Certainly - and beautifully - ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork.’ But such scripture was never intended to promote the worship of God’s creation so much as to demand evidence for the existence of a powerful and majestic Creator. Well did Paul write that a generation on this path exchanges the truth of God for a lie and worships and serves the creature rather than the Creator.

But as much as the truth of human sanctity is spoiled, so too is the divine institute of godly marriage. In its cave, this generation construes it as little more than a prison sentence, replacing godly union with a more independent, ‘spiced-up’ version of commitment. A current radio advertisement, equipped with a giggling and provocative voice-over, instructs: “Commitment is messy and burdensome; it's much better with no strings attached.” Here, on prime-time radio, marriage becomes a snare, and infidelity a normal part of its process.

Yet comments like these are not enough, and godly commitment must now be mocked. Playing this part are more lead artists of this generation, and a recent song reveals: “Mummy don't know Daddy's getting hot at the body shop.” Here, the values of fidelity and faithfulness are ridiculed, and commitment in a marriage is painted as a clumsy, failing aspiration. Husband and wife are too constricting as definitions, and the desires of the flesh are too much to handle. In this generation, love must be free - available in all of its various shapes and sizes, and these truths are distributed to all areas of its cave.

At a preschool book sale, one of the books - equipped with all the colour and glitter in the world - teaches that marriage is not only between a man and a woman but between any of the genders who so desire it. Towards the end of the book even ‘Uncle Larry’ joins the union so that marriage may now have two fathers, two mothers, or even three ‘birth parents’. (This a book highlighted for 3–6-year-olds.) If it feels right, it must be true. Such is love, and such is truth. Fluidity is a far better way to manage commitment, precisely because it requires no such thing at all. In this generation, a playful, perverted knowledge of good and evil provides a far more exciting landscape, and the true God - whose very essence is love - is cast out as boring and out of date.

Yet, at its weddings and ceremonies, this generation cannot admit a better definition of love. At these events it quotes, ‘Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy, nor puffs itself up. Love does not behave rudely, nor seek its own. Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rather in the truth. Love bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things.’ Such truths may only speak of Christ. His love gives, endures, heals, and saves. But a generation that is corrupting truth subscribes to its sound more than its substance and uses God's truth as a saccharine stage, only to spend the rest of its time writing and rehearsing other meanings. Here - playing its own gods - fidelity is replaced with pleasure, commitment with fluidity, and holiness with iniquity.

Genesis 3vs4,6:

‘Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die”
‘[but]they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.’

Celebrating a loud existence, this generation lives deaf to the truth that its spirit is dead. As it feeds on earthly pleasures, traversing paths that distort godly truths, it ignores the cry of this spiritual need and covers it with shallower efforts at healing. A current song declares, “there’s a hope that’s waiting for you in the dark…you don’t have to change a thing, the world could change its heart”, so that healing remains inside its cave, and, if anything, the world must change, not the state of its own heart. Here it sits, rigorously sewing its healing clothes; garments that have taught it to love and empower itself toward wholeness. A recent best-seller is praised for a “focus inwards towards self-ownership and intentional living", encouraging questions like, “What do I want? How do I want to live?", and answering with, "It’s about permitting yourself to pursue your goals, stepping into personal agency, making choices that support your personal growth, happiness, and well-being—without being ‘held back’ by others”. Here is an abundance of ‘me’ and the negation of any transcendent help, such that in many ways, this generation embodies the Samaritan woman at the well. Unaware of a deeper need, she converses with temporal questions, ignorant of a Saviour in front of her who may fully heal her state. It is the natural waters she is after. And while they have done well to quench her flesh, they have left her spiritually empty - oblivious to any eternal waters that will provide her with healing and spiritual life. Such are the waters that this generation so desperately needs.

1 Kings 19vs12:

‘…and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.’

Genesis 3vs21:

‘Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.’

Like Adam and Eve, this generation has entertained and succumbed to its own serpents, fashioning them into gods that provide fleshly pleasures but only temporal relief. Anxiously sounding the volume of its truths, it has worked hard to hide from God, creating new paths within the darkness of its cave.

Yet all the while, this generation has been oblivious to a God who seeks it — a God broken by its sin, yet untouched by its vehement efforts to silence Him. Like the story of Elijah, God’s still small voice still calls; a voice, as such, only because of the attempts of a generation to dim it. Here is a voice not in bombastic truths and thunderous messages, but one in which righteousness dwells and which quietly but persistently calls: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ - ‘Come to me, and I will give you rest.’ Such is the message of Jesus Christ, so contrary to the messages of a generation without Him.

And while it works hard to pave its future, all the while clinging restlessly to an earthly present, it may never alter the past, nor remove the victory of Christ, which absolutely conquered death, and whose sovereign voice confirmed such when it cried, "It is finished!” Such is the power that may command Lazarus to “Come forth”, and demand graveclothes to “Let him go.” Only such a Saviour may remove the garments of this generation and call it from a cave which, like Lazarus, has become its tomb.

For from eternity, God has sought this world, and sent His Son through whose stripes this generation may find eternal healing. Only, rather than hiding, it must come out from the depths and answer to the God who asks, “Where are you?” This is not the question of a God who cannot find, but the call of a God who desires response - so that as this generation surrenders its garments and confesses its sins, it meets a God who forgives but also clothes. He is the only God of truth. And though this generation may hide from Him, He is the only God who seeks it.

Greg Kyle: I have been a dedicated high school educator for 16 years and currently serve as the Head of Student Affairs, specializing in History and English at his High School. I also work as one of the leaders in my local church in South Africa. With a passion for the well-being of children and adolescents, as well as that of adults, I have spent time addressing the challenges people face, both personally and spiritually. My commitment has extended to writing, having contributed to newsletters and essays in my current capacity.