Seize the Day (Avenged Sevenfold) James 4:14 & Ecc. 1:11AMP

 Seize the Day by Avenged Sevenfold 

Seize the day or die regretting the time you lost

It's empty and cold without you here, too many people to ache over

Seize the day means to make the most of the present moment.  We should make the most of every moment of our lives.  Our lives are short.  Yet you do not know [the least thing] [b]about what may happen in your life tomorrow. [What is secure in your life?] You are merely a vapor [like a puff of smoke or a wisp of steam from a cooking pot] that is visible for a little while and then vanishes [into thin air]. James 4:14amp  Time is precious if you’re a human being.  Time is the most valuable thing that we don’t own.  We get to borrow it while here on earth and whenever we lose it it is costly in the long run. 

There is no remembrance of earlier things,

Nor also of the later things that are to come;

There will be for them no remembrance

By generations who will come after them.  Ecc. 1:11amp

I see my vision burn, I feel my memories fade with time

But I'm too young to worry

These streets we travel on

Will undergo our same lost past

Our memories happen just as fast as our lives do.  We’re so busy when we're young having fun that we forget to stop and actually pay attention to life.   We’re too young to worry as the song says.  

There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and assure himself that there is good in his labor. Even this, I have seen, is from the hand of God. 25 For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him? 26 For to the person who pleases Him God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting so that he may give to one who pleases God. This too is vanity and chasing after the wind.  Ecc. 2:24-26amp

I found you here, now please just stay for a while

I can move on with you around

I hand you my mortal life, but will it be forever?

I'd do anything for a smile

Holding you 'til our time is done

We both know the day will come

But I don't want to leave you

Nothing is forever.  All things come to an end.  We all know our day will come at some point.  Our flesh wants to stay because we have found friends, family and spouses we don’t want to leave behind.  In our humanity, in our flesh, we don’t want to leave.  We will miss them and they’ll miss us.  And we fear leaving this planet.  Our flesh fights our spirit man in this because our true self, our spirit man knows that if you have given your life to Jesus, eternity awaits you on the other side. 

There is a season (a time appointed) for everything and a time for every delight and event or purpose under heaven—
A time to be born and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot  Ecc. 3:1-2amp

He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good as long as they live; 13 and also that every man should eat and drink and see and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.  Ecc. 3:11-13amp

I see my vision burn

I feel my memories fade with time

But I'm too young to worry

A melody, a memory, or just one picture

(I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off (the) shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.)

[25] “And I will compensate you for the years That the swarming locust has eaten, The creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust— My great army which I sent among you.  Joel 2:25amp

Seize the day or die regretting the time you lost

It's empty and cold without you here, too many people to ache over

Newborn life replacing all of us

Changing this fable we live in

No longer needed here so where do we go?

Will you take a journey tonight, follow me past the walls of death?

But girl, what if there is no eternal life?

People continue to be born everyday and they will continue to live their own lives after we’re gone.  They will write new histories and create new memories without us. However, there is eternal life.  The life we will be living until their assignment on earth is finished or until the Lord returns.  Remember if you’re still here, you’re still on assignment. 

 For the [earthly] fate of the sons of men and the fate of animals is the same. As one dies, so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no preeminence or advantage for man [in and of himself] over an animal, for all is vanity. 20 All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust. So I have seen that there is nothing better than that a man should be happy in his own works and activities, for that is his portion (share). For who will bring him [back] to see what will happen after he is gone?  Ecc. 3:19-20;22amp

“For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] [a]only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge and condemn the world [that is, to initiate the final judgment of the world], but that the world might be saved through Him.  John 3:16-17amp 

Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. But the water that I give him will become in him a spring of water [satisfying his thirst for God] welling up [continually flowing, bubbling within him] to eternal life.” John 4:13-14amp 

I see my vision burn

I feel my memories fade with time

But I'm too young to worry

A melody, a memory, or just one picture

Seize the day or die regretting the time you lost

It's empty and cold without you here, too many people to ache over

Trials in life, questions of us existing here

Don't wanna die alone without you here

Please tell me what we have is real

Being on this earth there are going to many trials and tribulations as humans.  There are many situations where life happens.  But these things happen to test us.  They happen to test our faith, our belief and our trust in the only one who can save us.  The only one who can help us survive any and all things. That inner peace that James talks about only comes from being tested.  The testing of your faith gives you that assurance and peace of mind that you will see Him when you are finally called home. 

Consider it nothing but joy, my [a]brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials. 3 Be assured that the testing of your faith [through experience] produces endurance [leading to spiritual maturity, and inner peace]. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed [in your faith], lacking in nothing.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t touch on the love or relationship aspect of this song.  M. Shadows definitely hits a nerve by highlighting the fact that if he leaves first he’ll never be with his significant other again and/or that he’ll miss her and be lost without her.  He never wants to leave her.  This is very understandable when you’ve been or if you’ve been married a long time.  That connection is strong.  Thus the reason those couples who have been married 40 plus years, if one spouse passes the other isn’t far behind.  They’re missing a piece of themselves and can’t bare to be without it.  This song impeccably expresses that feeling in losing a spouse to them passing. 

So, what if I never hold you, yeah

Or kiss your lips again?

Woah, so I never want to leave you

And the memories of us to see I beg don't leave me

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. Gen. 2:24amp

Two are better than one because they have a more satisfying return for their labor; 10 for if [a]either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and does not have another to lift him up. 11 Again, if two lie down together, then they keep warm; but how can one be warm alone? 12 And though one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.  Ecc. 4:9-12amp

 Husbands, love your wives [seek the highest good for her and surround her with a caring, unselfish love], just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.  Eph. 5:25amp

Seize the day or die regretting the time you lost

It's empty and cold without you here, too many people to ache over

Trials in life, questions of us existing here

Don't wanna die alone without you here

Please tell me what we have is real

Silence you lost me, no chance for one more day

Silence you lost me, no chance for one more day [then continues in the background]

I stand here alone

Falling away from you, no chance to get back home

I stand here alone

Falling away from you, no chance to get back home

Seize the day means to make the most of the present moment.

“Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,

A little folding of the hands to rest [and daydream],”  Proverbs 24:33amp

Yes, Ecclesiastes says, There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and assure himself that there is good in his labor. Even this, I have seen, is from the hand of God.  However, two key phrases:  in his labor and from the hand of God.  First, Proverbs 24:33 is a warning against laziness so labor is good; and second, from the hand of God means, everything comes from God.  Your time here is short.  Don’t be lazy. Don’t die regretting the time you lost.  Make the most of every present moment.