Carpe Diem
By Grant Gaines
The university’s final exams are tomorrow. All of the homework assignments, quizzes, and tests now give way to the final exam which can count up to 25% of your entire semester’s grade. As you look across the campus, it looks like a deserted ghost town in an old John Wayne western. The Greek houses which are usually filled with laughter and games are quiet and still. The basketball courts which are usually jam packed with energetic college students are empty and lonely. And the restaurants which are usually full of pool sharks and dart throwers have empty tables left and right.
But there is one place on campus that you can be sure to find people on this evening—the library. Games, fun, and laughter give way to studying. And not just any studying—cramming. Teachers will warn against this method of studying from the first day of class, but without fail you can be assured to find thousands of students trying to fit a semester’s worth of studying into a sleepless night of preparation on the night before the final.
If you’ve ever tried this cramming studying method for a final exam, you know the results all too well. Sure, you may have snuck by on an exam or two, but the majority of the exams that you crammed for got the better of you. And if we were all honest with ourselves, rather than pointing the finger of blame at our teachers or circumstances, the true reason behind our academic struggles was trying to cram for the final at the last minute.
I think we can all agree that cramming for a final exam is not the wisest route to take if we want to excel in school, and yet so many of us apply this “cramming” mentality to our lives. Let me explain.
James 4:14 (NLT) says, “…Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.” Bottom line? Life is short, it flies by, it is here today and gone tomorrow. And while each individual day may seem long, the years pass in the twinkling of an eye. Just think about how quickly your kids grow up…or how quickly you grow up!
And with that being said, the danger you and I must both avoid is cramming at the end of each season of our lives rather than enjoying the journey along the way.
You’ve seen the people who have crammed at the end of a particular season of their life, haven’t you? They are the parents who spent the last 18 years of their lives eagerly waiting for their kids to go off to college so they could have the house to themselves only to be left a week into their kids being gone with a photo album and a box of tissues longing for just one more day with their kids. You’ve seen the man who worked for forty years with an eye on retirement only to be sitting at home in a rocker, restless and bored out of his mind looking under every rock for something useful to do with his hands.
We’ve all seen these people in different areas of life because we are these people—hoping, wishing, and praying a season of life away in the hopes that the grass will be greener in the next season. But as we know from cramming for tests and as we’ve seen from our own lives, this “cramming” mentality is no way to live. Instead, Psalms 90:12 (NLT) speaks to us when it says, “Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.”
Count each day as a blessing, live it for all that it is worth, and don’t let this day slip by without cherishing every moment. As difficult, tough, and unpleasant as the season you are in may currently seem, you are going to look back on this moment many years from now with a smile.
Don’t miss what God has planned for you today because you have an eye on tomorrow. Heed the advice of Jesus in Matthew 6:34 (NIV) when He instructs, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
And as the famous Latin saying goes, “Carpe Diem”—seize the day!
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
©Grant Gaines 2013
