For my communication class we have a “Fun Assignment” tossed in because our professor is a fan of movies. The assignment is simply to watch a movie (from a list given in class) and reflect on the “Big Idea” or main message of the movie … so, as always, I share it with you. 🙂
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Tonight I watched (yes, for the first time) Dead Poet’s Society. Somehow I had the movie all wrong and must have gotten it mixed up with another movie because I somehow thought it was about a bunch of black students from the inner city learning to appreciate poetry. I’m thinking I had it mixed up with Take the Lead or Glory Road or something. At any rate, I was glad to finally see this movie.
The Big Idea was easy to spot—Carpe Diem: Seize the Day! Professor Keaner gives us the key early on in the film and the rest of the movie develops how he uses creative teaching methods to help his students understand this crucial theme and how truly living this way can be costly.
The movie challenges me because of the ways that it parallels the call to live for Christ. On the first day of class Professor Keaner takes the boys out of the classroom and has them look, really look, at the photos of all the classes that came before them at Walton School, the pictures of the young men, just like them, who lived and had dreams, aspirations, vision. And who died. All of them died. And their whisper was, according to Keaner, carpe diem!
So as we read Scripture, as we read biographies of the men and women who have devoted themselves to the cause of Christ, what do they whisper? What do we hear? Do we hear them saying, “Just relax. Hang out. Don’t stress. Have fun.” No! Carpe Diem doesn’t mean seize the day by blowing it. Carpe Diem means seize the day by making something of it! And because our cause is Christ, carpe diem means seize the day by using every second of it for the Kingdom of God.
But what does that look like? Ah, this is now getting at the heart of what makes my heart beat faster, of what makes gives me drive for life and passion to do more and live better—the sacredness of the mundane. The Sacredness of the Mundane is my passion. Therefore, Carpe Diem means seize the sacred! Seize all that you can in this day, today, right where you are at, surrounded by laundry and dinner and a toddler whining for his sippy cup with a poopy diaper and a runny nose. Seize the sacred!
So how? How do we live this way? Brother Lawrence got it (Read Practicing the Presence of God), AW Tozer got it (Read The Pursuit of God), how can we get it? Well this movie would say by not conforming to what everyone else thinks you should do but to be an independent, or “free” thinker. Ok, that makes sense. So what does Scripture say? “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” In a sense, this movie is echoing Scripture, but we have a deeper understanding. We don’t just want the mind of ourselves, we want the mind of Christ. We don’t want to think like everyone else, unless they think like Christ. He is our measuring rod. He is our standard. And when I’m seeking and striving to think like He thinks and love like He loves, I won’t put Him in a little box and try to tuck Him away neatly under my own control.
The final thrust of the movie is this—living this way is costly. For Neil, it cost him his life. For Keaner, it cost him his job. Would they both say it was worth it? You bet. What did it cost Christ? Everything. What does it cost us? Nothing less.