What are we yearning for as students? In high school, I’m sure many of us heard the term YOLO (You Only Live Once.) People would use it to describe outlandish actions in order to find the “value” of life.

But what is the true value of life as college students and young adults? What are we yearning for if not for a relationship with Jesus?

Oftentimes, I hear John Durham, the leading pastor at Highland Baptist Church, say that non believers are dead without Christ in their lives and in their hearts. But I think believers can sometimes find themselves dead in sin.

Maybe many of us have yearned for alcohol, drugs, sex and fun, but often do not stop to take the time to think about the simple facts. A relationship with Christ is not one of a mere baptism and annulment of sins, but of a continual press to know God on a deeper level. This is a constant adjustment of your own life to no longer satisfy your own human desires, but to understand sacrifice on your own behalf, to live for God, rather than die because of a manmade motto like YOLO.

I have often even caught myself in this trap of yearning for something else. Whatever that looks like, whether it is lust, pride, greed, you name it. But I have looked to change my mindset and I challenge whoever is reading this column to do the same.

Now, this is not a 21-day challenge or even a “try a different food for a month” sort of deal. I am asking you to challenge your lifestyle and turn from your cravings as a sinful being. I am asking you to yearn for something greater than yourself. I am asking you to yearn for a relationship with God.

In the Gospel of Luke, there was a man that yearned to see the face of God and went out of his way to do so.

“He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.” Luke 19:1-4.

I want to find that fervor for myself again, that fervor to see the face of God and to get the opportunity to know God like never before.

Do not hide behind a denomination of Christianity and claim that you have a relationship with God because you attend church every Sunday with a coffee in hand and post scripture all over Facebook. Instead, “when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” Matthew 6:6.

It is seen all throughout the Bible that God knows the true desires of our hearts and that he is aware of our sin even when we choose to ignore it.

“And he said to them, ‘you are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God,’” Luke 16:15.

This is also found in Romans 14:12: “So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”

We, therefore, are truly not fooling ourselves when it comes to our yearning and our desires for earthly things.

So, Baylor Bears, I challenge you to answer the question: What are you yearning for?

Dane Chronister is a senior journalism major from League City. He is the city editor for the Lariat.