Carpe Diem

One of my favorite movies as a teenager was Dead Poet's Society. It's a story about this incredibly shy kid, Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke), who attends a boy's school. He has an outgoing roommate, Neil, and an incredibly inspiring English teacher, Mr. Keating (Robin Williams), who encourages Todd to come out of his shell. The theme of the movie is Carpe Diem -- Seize the Day. This professor is encouraging the kids not to merely conform, but to transform their world--to make a difference. Each student does so in a different way.

I watched this movie over the holidays with my husband and son. It truly is one of those timeless movies. Even though it came out ten years before Ben was born, it spoke to him. The teacher in this movie, "O Captain, my Captain," wanted to inspire these kids to be true to themselves. He encouraged them to live life to the fullest. In a sense, he encouraged them to be rebels--to challenge conformity and think outside the box. He wanted them to wrestle with life, with ideas, and LIVE!

As I watched, I thought that often we as Christians can be like these kids in this movie. We can walk the way we think others want us to walk. We can shy away from sharing Jesus because ___ (fill in the blank) ...we each have our own list of excuses. We can put in our time at church on Sundays, and follow the "rules", but not ever really challenge ourselves to think, meditate on the Word and allow it to truly transform our lives. We can go through life without ever creating waves. But I'm not sure that's what God intended.

One of our focal passages for this preparation time in our church is Acts 17:1-9. It's the story of Paul and Silas in Thessalonica at Jason's house. The Jews didn't like Paul & Silas being in town, so they went to Jason's house to find them. The Scripture tells us "they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city." When they didn't find Paul and Silas, here's what they said about them: "These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here...saying that there is another king, one called Jesus."

My favorite moment during the entire Christmas season was one Sunday when we were selling t-shirts in the Welcome Center. Helping me sell the shirts was a new Christian, and while we were selling, he shared his testimony with me. He was going through a rough time, and a believer shared a verse with him, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matt. 11:28-29). The guy responded to the shared verse with, "Man, why'd you have to go there? I don't want to talk about that religion stuff." But the believer had already stirred up the soul of the unbeliever. This kid wrestled for a solid year with God, and finally surrendered his life to the LORD this past June.

That's the kind of trouble I'm talking about. The kind where all we do is be bold enough to speak the Truth that we know, and allow God to use it to penetrate a heart, and wrestle that heart to surrender. So, I'm praying that each of us prays for and expects these opportunities to come our way, and then are faithful enough to embrace each opportunity and stir up some trouble.

There's a song called "Until the Whole World Hears" by Casting Crowns. Here's a portion of the text, or you can check out the video online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6BW_5WosgA :

Lord, I want to feel your heart
And see the world through Your eyes
I want to be your hands and feet
I want to live a life that leads
Ready yourselves, Ready yourselves,
Let us shine the light of Jesus in the darkest night

I hope these words will inspire you as you put feet to God's commands. Carpe diem -- let's "seize the day" and shine the light of Jesus from now until the whole world hears!