If you only had one day to live how would you spend it? If you were only promised 24 more hours what would be the first thing you would do? Would you call every single person in your contacts and tell them how much you love them? Would you go mark off as many uncompleted things on your bucket list. Would you travel somewhere you have always wanted to go? What would you do if today was all you had?

As college students we live for the moment, we live as if nothing could tear us apart and as if we are invincible to failure. However, as Christian college students that attend a private Christian university, we far to often think since we pay to go here, that our ticket to Heaven has been punched so we might as well live for the moment. But we couldn't be more wrong. We constantly live like we have endless amounts of tomorrows left, we plan trips years in advance and we plan our tomorrows like they are promised, but that is the scary thing—we aren't promised anything. When God breathed into us the breath of life, our clock started with its number of seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, and years and there is absolutely no way we can stop it.

College students, especially Christian college students, who know about Heaven and all its glory are often the ones to forget that our clock is ticking. Our clock is no better than the lost soul who is living in sin, because we are equal. So if you only had one day left how would you spend it? Would you spend it differently than you spent today, because if that answer is yes than we need to change something. You see, you're not promised tomorrow or the next day or the next week or even for the rest of the day, so live like today is it. “For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”

Even though this is the season of tidings and good cheer, we need to not forget the hour is approaching. Right now I sound like the grinch that stole Christmas, but that is only because I wasted eighteen years on my clock and I would rather no one else waste a second. We can never regain a second we loose or a day we spend idle doing absolutely nothing for our Lord. Even though right now our time is spent buying presents, running in and out of stores, and planning for holiday feasts, we cannot forget why we are here.

We aren't here to make money. We aren't here to gain a degree. We aren't here to be happy. We aren't here to have our dream house or car or life. We are here to serve God with every single second we have and if we do that, I believe everything else will come. Matthew 6:25-27 says, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns—and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his lifespan?”

Today may be all we have, please don't waste a single second.

Carpe Diem: Seize the Day.