Carpe Diem

Literally carpe diem means “seize the day”… in other words, enjoy the present rather than deferring all your hopes on to the future. Living for the day is actually a very practical philosophy yet, as all good philosophies go, shouldn’t be the one and only principle to be used.

If you forgo all the “thinking ahead” stuff...you’ll most likely never achieve certain goals. Some things just don’t come to fruition unless there’s a certain amount of planning. That said, some people take planning to an extreme and truly miss out on what’s going on around them right now. As with most things...balance is paramount.

I’ve spent my whole life looking ahead on what I should be, or become, or aspire to be as it relates to being a good Christian boy. Now in my mid-fifties, it occurs to me that I probably could have utilized some good ol’ “carpe diem” along the way. My visions of good-Christiandom always seem to be looking beyond the present and envisioning a loftier person. Really, Greg?

Sure, we’re all in the middle of a “process” in life, but God has no timeline as it equates to His ultimate plan. He sees where we’ve been and where we’re going and everything in between simultaneously and His love and desire for our lives is not dependent on how we view things from our myopic human brains. God sees us in our totality already.

Nothing wrong with pursuing better living, improved understanding, gaining experiences to enhance who we are. It just shouldn’t be the criteria for which we value ourselves through God’s eyes. He sees a much clearer picture and━albeit hard to understand━loves us as much as He did before we even existed.

James puts it pretty boldly in Chapter 4 saying: Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

Go ahead, seize the day. It truly is a privilege we shouldn’t take lightly.

Blessings!

Greg Morton
Copyright © July, 2014

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