CARPE DIEM - How To Experience The Ultimate Life
THE LONELIEST MOMENT IS WHEN YOU ACHIEVE WHAT YOU THOUGHT WOULD BE THE ULTIMATE BUT IN THE END, IT LETS YOU DOWN.
If you stayed awake through your High School English class, you no doubt heard the term “Carpe Diem”, meaning seize the day.
People often use this to urge someone to make the most of the present time and give little thought to the future. I however would argue that in order to truly seize the day we MUST consider both the present and the future because instant gratification that is not connected to our larger purpose is incapable of satisfying the human spirit.
I had the privilege of hearing the author of “Seal of God” Chad Williams speak last week and he told the story of his path to becoming a navy seal. His mentor who was training him was murdered by terrorists and dragged through the streets all while being filmed and shown on television.
There was nothing he wanted more than to become a seal and seek vindication for his friend.
There was no happier moment then when he achieved his goal. But strangely he said it lasted a few days and then he went back to feeling just like he had before achieving that goal.
We have all experienced something similar, we think that when we just get that new car, promotion or significant other then we will be happy. We get it and we are happy… for a little while. But then a few weeks pass and we are back to just feeling like ourselves, nothing has changed.
THE GREATEST THING ABOUT NOT HAVING IT ALL
But there is one great thing about not having it all. There is always something bigger to strive for. Something else we can hope for, believing that maybe it's that bigger better thing, it's that next rung on the ladder that will finally defeat the empty feeling and will finally make us feel whole.
This is why so many famous people commit suicide. They make it to the final ring. They realize there is nothing else. They still feel empty but now there is no hope it will change.
“The loneliest moment is when you achieve what you thought would be the ultimate but in the end, it lets you down.”
THE TRUTH
God says the reason we feel like this is because these things were never created to satisfy us. They can only be properly enjoyed when they are in their rightful place.
“My people have committed 2 sins: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water and have dug their own cisterns broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
“I lay before you life and death choose life.”
Jesus uses the analogy of the foundation we build our house on.
THE WISE AND FOOLISH BUILDERS
Building our life with God and his word as the foundation is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. No matter what comes against it, it will not crumble.
But building a life without that foundation is like building a house on the sand and when adversity comes it falls in a great crash.
Choosing the right foundation to build our life on is a concept God also spoke about in the old testament.
THE LAST SPEECH OF MOSES
In the last speech Moses gave before he died, he thought this was the most important thing for them to remember.
They had a choice before them of how their life would go, he warned them not to make anything their foundation besides the true rock, God. He warned them not to fall prey to fake Gods, things we think can replace him but are really just a sand foundation.
“For their rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede.”
There are always two options in front of us: what will you choose to build your life on?
Will you spend the rest of your life desperately impossibly trying to fill your needs on your own?
Or will you build it on the solid foundation, on the one who is capable of satisfying your soul?