CARPE DIEM: THE CALL TO DISCIPLESHIP

In Dead Poet’s Society, John Keating (played by Robin Williams) is teaching his first English class at his old school. Passionate about his subject, he wants to fire the imagination of his students. He wants them not to learn about poetry but to be engaged and moved by it. He calls them from their classroom, symbol of uninspiring safety, to a foyer with historical pictures of past students. He asks them to focus on the young faces as he says: They're not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they're destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in.

Listen, you hear it? - - Carpe - - hear it? - - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.

Faith – the call to follow Jesus as his disciple – is a call to carpe diem.

An online gallery of images from the day can be seen here.