Carpe Diem Redeemed: Seizing the Day, Discerning the Times
Overview
You only live once—if then. Life is short, and it can be as easily wasted as lived to the full. In the midst of our harried modern world, how do we make the most of life and the time we have?
In these fast and superficial times, Os Guinness calls us to consequential living. In strong contrast to both Eastern and secularist views of time, he reorients our very notion of history, not as cyclical nor as meaningless, but as linear and purposeful. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, time and history are meaningful, and human beings have agency to live with freedom and consequence in partnership with God. Thus we can seek to serve God’s purpose for our generation, read the times, and discern our call for this moment in history.
Our time on earth has significance. Live rightly, discern the times, and redeem the day.
Key Features
- Contrasts the Judeo-Christian worldview with Eastern and secularist views
- Proposes a linear and purposeful view of history
- Addresses common life questions of meaning and motivation
Top Highlights
“Many implications flow from this foundational idea of created freedom, but at their core is a titanic truth and a momentous message that completely transforms the meaning of life: Time and history have meaning. Under the twin truths of God’s sovereignty and human significance, time and history are going somewhere, and each of us is not only unique and significant in ourselves, but we have a unique and significant part to play in our own lives, in our own generation, and therefore in the overall sweep of history.” (Page 18)
“Viewed from this vantage point, the three major families of faiths are the Eastern, the Abrahamic, and the secularist, and out of them have grown three dominant and very different views of time and history—the cyclical, the covenantal, and the chronological.” (Page 13)
“The high humanism of the Bible’s view of humanity can be explored from several angles, as a series of trios. First, we humans are uniquely relational and conversational. We live our lives in constant dialogue with ourselves, with others, and with God (even if replacing him with substitutes or seeking to reject him altogether). Second, we humans are uniquely consequential on the earth, because of such qualities as our awareness, our agency, and our accountability. And third, we humans are uniquely central in creation as partners with God in his ongoing purposes in time and history. We are always small and uncertain junior partners, but our response to God’s call opens up the interplay between God’s sovereignty, our human significance, and history’s singularity.” (Pages 32–33)
Contents
- Singular, Significant, and Special
- Survival of the Fastest
- The Hidden Tyranny of Time
- Our Utmost for His Highest
- The Way to Seize the Day
- Prophetic Untimeliness
- The End Is Not the End
- The Day to End All Days
Praise for the Print Edition
As a man in midlife, I am often reminded that like a piece of fruit or a loaf of bread, I, too, have an expiration date. With this awareness comes searching questions such as, ‘What’s it all for? Is there meaning to anything that I do, since it will one day all be forgotten? What does it mean to live well in light of such realities?’ In characteristic fashion, Os Guinness not only explores these searching questions but offers satisfying, proven answers to them. If you are asking similar questions—or even if you’re not—I can’t recommend this book to you highly enough.
—Scott Sauls, author of Befriend
Most of us feel instinctively that we should seize the day but is the day worth seizing and should it be grabbed so unreservedly? Os Guinness is a wise and thorough guide to the deep issues surrounding this ancient maxim and helps us gain a clearer perspective on what it means to live life to the fullest.
—Steve Turner, music journalist and poet
Product Details
- Title: Carpe Diem Redeemed: Seizing the Day, Discerning the Times
- Author: Os Guinness
- Publisher: IVP
- Publication Date: 2019
- Pages: 176
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Topic: Christian Living