Do I Carpe?

Saturday night I was a participant in a pretty incredible event. We have a family and community friend who has been in a battle with cancer for quite some time. Most recently, she has been on a 10-month journey, away from her husband and three children at a Houston-area hospital. Well, she came home on Saturday and was greeted by some fanfare that some dear friends had arranged. A boatload (don't know if that is about a hundred, but it was a bunch) had lined the streets with signs and shouts of encouragement upon her return home. There were cheers, tears, smiles and even local news coverage. Needless to say, it was quite amazing.

The other day I was up early in a hotel room and found Dead Poets Society on the tube. Within this story, Robin Williams teaches his students to wonders of Carpe Diem—Seize the Day. The young lads in his class are bogged down by the historical and social walls within their school. Williams shakes them from their cobwebs and enables them to recognize the opportunity each day brings.

This triumphal reentry for our friend was an image of a group of neighbors, friends and family seizing the day. Very cool, but it challenged me to question if I am doing this on a daily basis. Do I carpe the day?

Certainly a wonderful celebration of a friends positive turns with cancer are worth seizing and celebrating, but I'd like to challenge myself to do that as I exit out of the bed (and this morning I was pretty darn tired). Over the course of our days do we recognize them as a gift from God. I know I don't. But I want to.

All of those "diems" which show up at our door, or shoot us an email, or look to us for an answer, or challenge an opinion—do we recognize them? Do we "carpe"? I believe it takes a clear, God-given perspective to truly allow us to recognize these moments. And a prayer-driven, God-trusting life to allow us "carpe" appropriately.