Are You Chasing Daylight and Perfect Moments?

Several things have caused me to re-evaluate my life lately. Death of a good friend. Celebrating a milestone birthday. Failure of some of my current endeavors. And reading this book.

Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

In the months before my good friend died, we discussed the need for urgency while pursuing Jesus Christ with all their heart. He had the good fortune to live the last 18 months of his life in urgent pursuit of Jesus.

The same message was reinforced by Gene O'Kelly in his book, Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life

O'Kelly was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and given three months to live, 90 days. He actually lived 100 days. This book is the story of how he chose to live those 100 days.

Chasing daylight refers to playing golf at the end of the day. As the shadows get longer and longer on the golf course, it becomes increasingly more difficult to find and track your ball. Regardless, O'Kelly indicated this was his favorite time of day to play golf and one of his favorite endeavors was chasing daylight across the golf course, trying to finish before it was too dark to continue.

He also articulated a concept known as a Perfect Moment. As he described it, a Perfect Moment is "usually a surprise, though sometimes I could see it unfolding. Sometimes I could help to engineer it, by creating the circumstances that would allow it to happen, but the best details about it were still a mystery until they happened. A Perfect Moment was a little gift of a moment or an hour or an afternoon. Its actual length was never the issue. The key thing was that you had to be open to a Perfect Moment." (page 110).

Based on recent events in my life, I have decided to seek Perfect Moments now. I will not wait until I am diagnosed with a terminal illness.

How to Create a Perfect Moment

According to O'Kelly, I must live fearlessly with clarity of mission, commitment and execution. For me, that means I must look for, and be open to, opportunities to spend time with God, with my family and friends. For opportunities to share the good news of Jesus Christ and to mentor the next generation to do the same.

2. Complete Absorption

I must live completely in the moment. I can not reflect on the past or think about the future. I must be completely absorbed in the Perfect Moment as it is happening.

3. Quality and Depth

I must focus on quality and depth. When I live with urgency, by definition I don't have a lot of time. So what I lack in time, I need to make up with quality and depth.

4. Simplicity

I must attempt to turn life's regular occasions into Perfect Moments. Just apply the first three principles to any occasion and you can create a Perfect Moment.

5. Openness

I need to be open to when God brings an unexpected Perfect Moment my way. I can't plan a beautiful sunset or sunrise, but I can recognize it as a potential Perfect Moment and enjoy it as such.

I can't always plan to have a deep spiritual conversation with a family member or friend, but I can recognize the potential of the Perfect Moment and cultivate it.

I can't predict who will be open to hearing the good news about Jesus Christ, but I can recognize the prompting of the Holy Spirit and go with it.

I can't possibly know that I will get to experience a hawk attacking a blue jay while I am sitting in the woods. But I can absorb myself in the Perfect Moment and capture every detail of the struggle to relive in the days, months and years ahead.

6. The Perfect Day

I need to realize that if I can string together enough perfect moments at a time, they equal a Perfect Day. And if I can live enough Perfect Days, that will make for a pretty good life.

7. Obedience

I have a couple more ideas of my own on a Perfect Moment. I think it requires obedience.

I think Stephen experienced a Perfect Moment while he was being martyred.

I think Paul experienced a Perfect Moment while he was being tossed about in sea after his ship wreaked.

I think obedience allows the grace of God to help me do the hard things and hard things done by the grace of God can be perfect moments.

8. Faith

I think faith is necessary to have a truly spiritual perfect moment. Faith allows me to see the "unseen" and that enhances the value of any moment.

This book caused me to reflect deeply on my life. It had a profound impact. I pray it will do the same for you.