Carpe Aeternum

Luke 12:13-21

I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!” (Luke 12:19)

CARPE DIEM. SEIZE THE DAY. You only live once. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die. Each of these maxims, the last of which was expressed in the disillusioned reflections of Ecclesiastes, expresses the same thought: that it’s important to live life to its fullest because the future is so uncertain. There’s truth in these sayings; we all want to make the most of the time we’ve been given. But the sentiment behind them often includes hints of desperation, hopelessness, melancholy, and doubt about what life really means. They suggest that the here-and-now is most important because it may be all we have.

It isn’t, of course. Scripture is clear that creation has direction and purpose and that death is not final for any of us. But the carpe diem mentality shapes the ways of the world. Without being grounded in eternity, human beings adopt a package of attitudes by default: We seek after comfort and ease instead of hard and painful truth; we minimize brokenness and sin rather than acknowledging it and receiving redemption and restoration; we emphasize human potential, power, and accomplishments rather than the acceptance and destiny God has given us; and we frantically seek temporal experiences now, before death comes, rather than trying to maximize our experience of eternity. In other words, we put all our energy into getting the most out of “life,” forgetting that life here and now is just a fraction of life as it really is.

Don’t make that mistake. Carpe aeternum—seize eternity, not just the day. It’s easy to slip into a temporal approach to life, especially when everyone else around us sees that approach as normal and natural. There’s a tremendous difference between living under the clock in a panic and patiently waiting for endless time to begin. Many people, even many of those who claim to follow Jesus, seek immediate returns on their investments of time, energy, and resources. But we should seek eternal returns on much more farsighted investments—and become models of patience, peace, and eternal truth.

{Lord, help me find the balance between making the most of the time you have given me and living with an eternal perspective. I’d rather invest my life than spend it. May I always seize the Kingdom, not just the day. Amen.