Carpe Diem…

The words Carpe Diem are a pair of Latin words which commonly are translated into the simple phrase of ”Seize The Day”.  After watching the move “Dead Poets Society” yesterday I started thinking about those words.  What does it mean to “Seize The Day”? 

In the movie, which is set in the 1950’s at an all boy boarding school, a small group of the upperclassmen of the school decide to start a secrete club named The Dead Poets Society in which they tell stories, tell jokes, break rules and read poetry.  At the beginning of every meeting they read an opening message. “I went to the woods because I  wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life, and not, when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived.”

Upon hearing those words I started thinking about myself.  Checking to see if I have been living in a manner that I would consider to be “Sucking out all the marrow of life”.  Though I don’t quite agree with everything that was done in the movie in the name of “Carpe Diem”, I like to think of the phrase in a different perspective.

My eldest brother Justin was a musician and a writer, in 2004 the Lord decided to take him from this Earth to be with him at the age of 20.  Many of the things my brother wrote during his life are very important to me, but In my opinion, the most powerful things he ever wrote was the phrase “Wake up and see Death never sleeps”.  One of his main reasons for writing this was that someone very dear to him had passed away and although he had spent time with this person and had prayed for this person, he had no idea if they had accepted Christ as their personal savior.  With this lack of knowing whether or not he would ever see his friend again, Justin wrote these words saying that there is NO TIME to waste in this life. Not only do you not know how long you will be here, you also have no idea of knowing how long anyone else will be here.  This stirs my heart.  This has broken me to a point of finally taking action.  I have realized that this life is short.  And because of that, I must treat every day as if it could be my last but i must also treat others as if any day might possibly be their last day as well.

To the Christ Followers who read this, Jesus said in Mark 16:15 

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”.

If you pay attention to the life of Christ, you will realize that he doesn’t allow you waste time with earthly things. The Bible says When Jesus called his disciples in Mark 1:16-20

“As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. Going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. Immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went away to follow Him.”

As I read those verses there are two things that catch my eye.  The first is that when Jesus called them to follow Him, just as in the poem from The Dead Poets Society says “To put to rout all that was not life”, they cast away their fishing nets and followed Him.  They cast away the old versions of themselves, removing everything that might hinder them, and just trusted and following him.  This is what he has also called us to do.

Secondly in the above verses the word ”Immediately” sticks out to me.  When Christ calls us to follow Him or to tell others about him, He wants us to do it immediately.  In Luke 9:59-60 speaking about Jesus, the Bible says

 ”To another He said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.”“

In these verses Jesus is not saying that burying your loved ones in bad or unimportant, He is simply saying that there is nothing at all that you should put in front of serving him and telling others of his great love.  This is your purpose, this is your commission.  Christ has sent us and we are His messengers to the entire world.  The world is rather large, so there is not a second to waste.

I will be the first to admit that truly living a life of Carpe Diem for Christ is far from easy.  And I will be the first to admit that failure is an almost daily reoccurring because of my sinful desires.  But I Pray that when I die I will know that I had truly lived, and I will stand before my God on the day of Judgment and He will say to me “Well done, my good and faithful servant”