|
seize the day top
|
|
Carolyn Arends
|
(from I Can Hear You - 1995)
|
|
For years I've been asked what the phrase "lei de dei" (as featured in this song) means. I always tell people that it's Latin for "Jesus loves you". This is not true. I mean, it is true that Jesus loves you, but it is not true that "lei de dei" is Latin to that effect, or that it is Latin at all.
|
|
"Carpe diem" is, however, Latin for Seize the Day. It's an exhortation to make the most of every moment, and for the Believer it takes on special meaning with the knowledge that, if what we do today counts in God's kingdom, it counts for eternity. I think this is at least part of what Jesus had in mind when He told us we could live life abundantly.
|
|
Mac Powell (from the band Third Day) drove up from Atlanta in an ice storm (in true carpe diem fashion) to lend his soulful voice to the live version.
|
|
I know a girl who was schooled in Manhattan
|
She reads dusty books and learns phrases in Latin
|
She is an author, or maybe a poet
|
A genius but it's just this world doesn't know it
|
She works on her novel most every day
|
If you laugh she will say
|
|
chorus:
|
Seize the day, seize whatever you can
|
'Cause life slips away just like hourglass sand
|
Seize the day, pray for grace from God's hand
|
Then nothing will stand in your way
|
Seize the day
|
|
Well I know a doctor, a fine young physician
|
Left his six-figure job for a mission position
|
He's healing the sick in an African clinic
|
He works in the dirt and writes home to the cynics
|
He says "We work through the night so most every day
|
As we watch the sun rise we can say
|
|
chorus
|
|
Well I know a man who's been doing some thinking
|
He's as bitter and cold as the whiskey he's drinking
|
He's talking 'bout fear, about chances not taken
|
If you listen to him you can hear his heart breaking
|
He says "One day you're a boy and the next day you're dead
|
I wish way back when someone had said
|
|
chorus
|
|
Well one thing I've noticed, wherever I wander
|
Everyone's got a dream he can follow or squander
|
You can do what you will with the days you are given
|
I'm trying to spend mine on the business of living
|
So I'm singing my songs off of any old stage
|
You can laugh if you want, I'll still say
|
|
chorus
|
|
|
|
-----------------
|
seize the day
|
| Carolyn Arends |
