Carpe Diem – seize the day

Carpe Diem – seize the day

There is a school of thought that I heard growing up that one should wait on God until such time as you receive a clear directive from Him. While there is merit in this idea one gets the sense from the scriptures that many of the great protagonists were men and women of action rather than those that did nothing until word came down from on high.

Take for example the story of King Saul (the first in Israel) and his son Jonathan as reported in 1 Samuel 14. Saul had just messed up offering up the burnt offering to God rather than waiting for Samuel (Israel's prophet) so Samuel told him that him that his kingdom would not endure. So here is Saul and about 600 men with the Philistine army (Israel's arch-rivals) near by and no weapons except those carried by Saul and Jonathan. Not what you would call good odds.

READ 1 Samuel 14:1-23

Another great victory built on the shoulders of one man's courage and faith. I put to you that it is men and women like Jonathon that the Lord wants. There is an impetuousness and recklessness that is the upshot of living out a life of faith. We need to walk into danger, ignore the odds, and risk everything (even our lives) on the strength of God's promises. Reason and caution have little place in the great adventure. They seem safe and they usually are but they inevitably lead to the quite backwaters where there is little personal growth and a staleness that eats away at our souls. The higher road is the narrower road, is a dangerous road but a glorious one where we can daily see the hand of God at work. This is where we see "His kingdom come on Earth as it is in heaven" and this is where we should want to be; on the cusp; walking the line; beating the odds.

Do you remember from the passage I just read where the man Saul was; the man chosen by God and entrusted with the authority to rule God's people? He had with him 600 men including the high priest of Israel wearing the Ephod and the awe-inspiring Arc of the Covenant. Good reason for believing that God would be with them in any endeavours? He was sitting in the shade of a Pomegranate tree. Perhaps Saul was trying to figure out how they could manage a victory with no weapons or maybe he was waiting for God to send help…we aren't told what was going through his mind but we do know that Saul was "staying".

Jonathon on the other hand was not "staying". Jonathon was a man of action and of faith. On the strength of his experience of God's deliverance and presumably with the knowledge of God's character revealed he declares his intention to attack the Philistines saying to his young amour-bearer, "Perhaps the Lord with act on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few".

What a tremendous reckless act of bravery. Jonathon clearly has no specific direction from God about the idea; "Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf". But rather simply understands God's nature of backing acts of faith and devotion done in His name for the purposes of His kingdom. Jonathan is prepared to risk his life and the life or his young amour-bearer because of his faith in the unchangeable nature of God's character; in this case the belief that "Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few".

And of course, from the story we know that God gave Israel a tremendous victory that day; a victory begun by the faithful recklessness of brave Jonathan who dared to believe in the promises of God blindly seizing the initiative by leading the charge. God joined Jonathon in battle (sending confusion on the Philistines) and only then did Israel's rightful leader Saul take up his sword and finish the job.

Let us me be like Jonathon when facing the difficulties of life and even when the odds are over-whelming against us odds; let us put our faith in God's saving nature. Let us not be found waiting for something to happen but rather "seek first his kingdom", create beach-heads, lead the charge and who knows, perhaps we will be immortalised as one of the great protagonists in creation's epic drama.

Carpe Diem – seize the day.