60 Christian Songs That Explain the '90s: "Seize The Day" by Carolyn Arends
Put down the phones and be in the moment
Even if you’re not familiar with football, the name John Madden rings a bell. You may not even remember him as being a coach, but a color commentator on Monday Night Football broadcasts. And if you’re still too young to remember that, you know the name Madden because every year in late summer a football video game bearing that name is released. Even now, millions around the globe are salivating at the August 16 release date for the newest version.
John Madden is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He’s a sports icon for many reasons. But as legendary as John Madden was and still is, he had a weird quirk. During the NFL season, while he went from city to city covering Monday night games, he refused to fly. Instead, he traveled in the Madden Cruiser, a massive tour bus of sorts to get to each team’s venue. From San Francisco to New York to Dallas to Chicago, John Madden wasn’t getting on a plane. He was on the bus. In 1987, the Madden Cruiser’s first year, the bus traveled over 55,000 miles. Yeeeesh.
When asked about his fear of flying, Madden referenced his claustrophobia. Though some wonder if the fear didn’t originate from a Cal Poly State football team plane crash in 1960. Madden was a Cal Poly grad and knew people who died in the crash. But Madden said that was only part of his fear, stating "I didn't like getting on planes before that. I got claustrophobic, and it got worse over the years."
This past week, my wife, daughters, and mother-in-law traveled out west to see the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. For my family, it was their first time flying. I’ve been on a dozen or so flights in my life, so I knew the process. But sweet mercy I did not know turbulence like the kind that happens when you’re flying into the airspace shared by massive 13,000-foot cliffs.
I sympathize with the late John Madden. I’m not really claustrophobic, but man do I dislike flying. With every little bump, I’m picturing how fast I can whip my phone out to make one last call to any loved ones to say goodbye because certainly, the plane is going down.
But it’s the risk you take if you want to travel to a place that would take literal days of traveling to get to in a car. You fly. You go through the hassle of expensive tickets, body scans at TSA, and keeping your fingers crossed that your flight isn’t delayed.
Then before you know it, tenuous hours have drifted by and your plane is landing right beside these mountains. Capped with snow. In July.
Here’s the thing about the Grand Tetons. And Yellowstone. And large swaths of southwestern Montana. No camera, no iPhone filter, no poet laureate or famed novelist can truly capture the beauty. It’s stunning. It’s breathtaking. And when you’re there staring at these incredible mountains standing behind a lake with lodgepole pines surrounding it, you just have to stare in amazement. Your eyes, your 20/20 vision, it can’t even behold the beauty.
During our 10 days traversing back and forth across portions of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, it was hard to keep my eyes on the road. It felt like every road I turned our rental Yukon down there was something new to see. But not just new. Beautiful and new. And knowing that this was perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime type trip, I wanted to soak it all in. I exclaimed to my wife “Are you seeing this?” around each curve of the Teton Pass. I looked in the rearview and anytime I saw our teenage daughters staring at their phones, I yelled “Girls, get off the phone and look out the window!” I didn’t want them to miss this, though I don’t know that I would’ve fully appreciated all the mountains and valleys myself when I was a teen. But every day I wanted to be like this sweet elderly woman.
It wasn’t just the jagged peaks and lakes. It was the wildlife. The bison, deer, bears, elks, eagles, and trout. It was the oddities like bubbling mud and acidic ponds. It was seeing Old Faithful being faithful. Every new thing, every site to see made me want to stop everything and seize the moment. To seize each day. Sure, we captured a ton of it on our phones, but across much of the drive throughout the park and surrounding areas, there was no service. It was just us and some other tourists attempting to capture a vastness that our hands, our phones, and our minds could not contain. We simply had to be in the moment and breathe it all in while we could.
In this week’s 60 Christian Songs That Explain the ‘90s, we’re covering “Seize The Day” by Carolyn Arends off her 1995 debut album I Can Hear You.
Arends was born in Vancouver, Canada on February 26, 1968. She began singing from the time she could talk. And while she loved music, her shy personality sent her down the path of becoming a doctor. But a year into college, she realized the world of biomedicine wasn’t for her. She switched her major, met her future husband, and pursued what she felt called to do: write and sing songs about her faith.
I first discovered Carolyn Arends’ music from her second album, Feel Free. “New Year’s Day” was on a sampler CD I purchased, and I fell in love with it. It has its own “carpe diem” message and gives off some serious Sheryl Crow vibes.
Carolyn Arends’ discography can’t be shoved into a singular comparison, however. The more upbeat jams sound like Sheryl Crow. But on many of her albums and especially on “Seize The Day”, the sound is much more folksy. And if the delightful voice doesn’t warm you, the lyrics will. Because “Seize The Day” is a story. Several stories, really, wrapped up in over five minutes of serene music.
It opens with a young woman striving to write a novel even if others laugh at her attempts. Then it gives us a story about a doctor leaving a lucrative job to do medical missions in Africa. Two people seizing the day in different ways. Doing what they believe God has called them to do.
But it’s the third story that hits. It’s when Carolyn Arends softens the voice just a touch more to tell us about a man, likely middle-aged, reflecting on a life of regrets with a bottle of whiskey in his hands. This part of the lyrics strikes me:
He says, 'One day you're a boy and the next day you're dead
I wish way back when someone had said'
Seize the day ' seize whatever you can
'Cause life slips away just like hourglass sand
Seize the day ' pray for grace from God's hand
Then nothing will stand in your way
Seize the day
Moving past regret. Making the most of the moment. Making life better in the future. All things we can be better at, with the help of God’s grace.
“Seize The Day” is a utility song. It’s a reminder, an alarm clock pinging on our phones telling us to wake up, to do the next thing, to take on what’s in front of us before what’s in front of us slips away. Sand in the hourglass.
Like a lot of contemporary Christian musicians, Carolyn Arends, in my opinion, has not been fully appreciated. The singer/songwriter genre is one we pay attention to often many years past an artist’s peak. And while Carolyn Arends is still making wonderful music, “Seize The Day” sits in the pantheon of CCM songs that deserve more recognition. Still, Arends is not alone on the underappreciated artists’ list:
Did the people at Wembley Stadium know what they were witnessing? Could they have? The legendary Tracy Chapman playing her smash “Fast Car” now seems like a can’t miss moment. The unmistakable guitar riff that opens the song. The voice. The unassuming way Tracy Chapman tells the song’s story. Her story. The regrets, the sacrifices, the decision to seize the day. The way her voice trembles just so when singing the line I had a feeling that I belonged. I had a feeling I could be someone.
Of course, Tracy Chapman is appreciated. She’s praised as one of our greatest singer/songwriters ever. And for the young kids who didn’t know Tracy Chapman or “Fast Car” until country star Luke Combs released his cover of it, take a moment to enjoy Luke looking at Tracy Chapman the way I stood last week and stared at the Grand Tetons.
Maybe Carolyn Arends can be compared to another singer/songwriter. Yes, let’s find another lovely voice with incredible lyrics about living in the moment. Oh, and look! This artist also hails from Canada.
Did the crowd at the Isle of Wight realize they were watching a legend perform? I don’t know. I hope so.
Joni Mitchell wrote “Both Sides Now” inspired by seeing the clouds from her window seat on an airplane. No fear of flying for Joni. Just a muse for one of the greatest songs ever recorded. So many things I would have done/but clouds got in my way.
You know Joni Mitchell. You’ve at least heard her name. I’d argue despite the accolades that she remains underappreciated in the music world. But in 2022 at the Newport Folk Festival, she sat on a literal throne of appreciation. Take a moment to enjoy Brandi Carlisle moved by Joni singing “Both Sides Now” the way I was moved last week by seeing 50 bison grazing in open meadows beneath a spotless sky in Yellowstone.
Like many incredible songs, I didn’t take hold of “Both Sides Now” until decades after its release. I was in college, around the same time music from Bob Dylan and Bob Marley were making its way into my collection. My roommate told me about this exceptional movie called Life As A House. It came out in the early 2000s and featured Kevin Kline, Kristen Scott Thomas, and Hayden Christensen.
Kevin Kline plays the role of a divorced father estranged from his family. And, spoiler alert here, the plot is basically this: Kevin Kline is dying and hopes to reconnect with his teenage son by spending the summer building a house together.
During one scene, it’s sunset on the California coast. Kline’s ex-wife (Kristen Scott Thomas) is with Kline and the children at the build site. She’s standing, remembering how her and her ex-husband first fell in love. She’s in the mood to dance. She pulls out a CD and plays this song.
The moment. It’s there, and might not be again. So you have a choice. You either keep doing what you’re doing and let it slip away, or you grab it and refuse to let it go. You take the dance, even if you can’t dance. Especially if you can’t dance.
I’ve probably ruined the movie for you, but it’s definitely worth you spending the five bucks or whatever on Amazon Prime to rent it. Because Life As A House, like Carolyn Arends’ song, is about seizing the day. Seizing the moment. And the moment might be writing a book. It might be taking a dance. It might be spending the summer building a house with your kid.
This scene is Kevin Kline’s plea to his distant son. That he would put away the drugs. That he would step away from the darkness. That he would wake up and be different. How? By building a house. (Warning: some inappropriate language in this clip)
What I find so remarkable about Carolyn Arends’ music is how every album and every YouTube song she puts out seizes the moment. There’s a Christmas album. In the past few years, she’s done a worship album. She did an entire album dedicated to parenting. That’s seizing the day. 18 years worth of them.
One particular song stands out to me from her 2021 album Recognition. The last track titled “After This” was inspired by the pandemic. The chorus says, And after this, the sun will be shining/ And all we missed, will come to us in a whole new light/ And then may we never waste/ The sweet gift of a warm embrace.
Seizing the day isn’t easy. There are worries. Fears. Pandemics. Yet God stays with us and guides us, even when we aren’t really vibing with the whole “carpe diem” spirit.
Another thing I love about Carolyn Arends is her love for family. Listen to this sweet song she did, inspired by a time her mom was sick with cancer during Easter and was stuck watching a service from her hospital bed.
There were a lot of “seize the day” moments last week for our family. We rafted the Gallatin River. We dug through a bucket of dirt for sapphires. We walked through unique landscapes in Yellowstone. We did fly fishing for the first time.
We did a trail ride on horseback, stopping halfway on a hilltop to look out over the valley at God’s creation. And part of you feels a bit helpless in a moment like that. Because nothing you can do will capture it. A photo on my iPhone 15 won’t do any of it justice. We’ll talk about all we saw for years to come, but nothing will appropriately describe what our eyes witnessed. We just had to soak in every second, seize every moment, knowing that nothing stops sand from slipping through the hourglass. Nothing stops time. Nothing keeps the sun from setting.
But praise God, because the sun will rise again.
Thanks for reading this week’s “60 Christian Songs That Explain the ‘90s”. Now, if you will, take a few minutes and enjoy Carolyn Arends singing her classic song “Seize The Day”. We’ll catch you again next week!
Miss a previous post from 60 Christian Songs That Explain the ‘90s? Find them below:
“Shout To The Lord” by Darlene Zschech
“Another Time, Another Place” by Sandi Patty and Wayne Watson
Thank you for sharing your experience visiting Yellowstone and Grand Tetons! I would certainly like to be able to do a vacation like that some day. I also appreciate the movie and music recommendations - I will add them to my list!