The comics are the first place I turn in the morning paper. F-Minus is one of my favorites. I don’t know if today’s edition is funny or … frightening. Funny because of the irony. Frightening because, whether its sleep, work, TV or movies, hobbies, or whatever, we can ____ through our life without realizing it.
As I was ending 5th grade, I carefully planned out my 3 month vacation. My goal was to spend every day exploring some new aspect of the forests around our mountain home. I studied the hills with my telescope, noting the interesting trees that could be climbed. I drew a picture of the slope, and wrote under it, “To be explored” in a heavy hand as if to underscore my eager determination.
What actually happened was very different. Sadly different. Instead of awaking with the dawn and packing a lunch and a canteen full of water… I slept until 10 or 11 every morning. E V E R Y morning of the entire summer when someone (read “Mom”) didn’t wake me. As August ended, I found my drawing of the to-be-explored hillside under some clutter. Disgusted with myself and with my squandered opportunity, I crumpled the paper and threw it away.
A few years ago, my beloved recognized that I was growing emotionally stale. She began to urge me to remember the dreams God had placed on my heart in younger days. She had read somewhere (I think) that 100 was the magic number. So she urged me to spend a couple days alone at our mountain property to come up with 100 things I wanted to do with the rest of my life.
I didn’t come up with 100, but what happened as I did this exercise was realize that I had put a number of dear dreams on the back burner of “someday I’ll … ” or “wouldn’t it be nice to …” Not dreams of my own concoctions, but dreams that I believe God had written on my heart. One dream was a professional transition from being a pastor to being a professional counselor. “Someday” that might happen.
Last November I turned 55. That “someday” seemed just as far away as it did a couple years before. This time, the rumbling in my spirit was much louder.
Spare you the details… On Jan. 31, I resigned from my pastorate of 22 years. Now begins a new adventure.
The Greek phrase “carpe diem” – seize the day – is the antidote to “____-ing through our lives without realizing it.”
Or as Paul wrote: “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” (Eph. 5:15-16).
And short. Very, very short.
Carpe your diem! Its the only one you get.