For
JUST A THOUGHT
by Rick Kraft
HOW TO LIVE LIFE LIKE YOU WERE DYING
We assume so much each day we live. We also take a lot for granted. Some of the things I am assuming: My parents will live another fifteen to twenty years, my son will succeed in college, my daughter will graduate from high school, both of my children have a long life ahead of them, and I will live well into my eighties and my wife will outlive me (she has already promised me this!).
There is a song that does a good job of putting things in perspective by Tim McGraw. It is called "Live Life Like You Were Dying." The song tells first hand the story of a man whose life was changed suddenly when he was told he didn't have long to live.
His life was typical, like yours or mine. We can assume he got up each morning and went to work and had good days and bad days. From time to time he probably argued with his wife and got frustrated with his children. He celebrated accomplishments as they occurred. He had some good friends and he also had relationships with others that were broken. His life was on a track, as is most of ours, to live many years in the future.
I wish you could hear the music with the words as the melody adds to the message. The lyrics are as follows, "He said I was in my early forties with a lot of life before me when a moment came that stopped me on
a dime. And I spent most of the next days looking at
the x-rays talking 'bout the options and talking 'bout sweet time. I asked him
when it sank in, that this might really be the real end, how's it hit you when
you get that kinda news man what'd you do. And he
said:
"I went sky diving. I went Rocky Mountain climbing. I went 2.7 seconds
on a bull named Fu Manchu. And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter and I gave
forgiveness I'd been denying and he said someday I hope you get the chance to
live like you were dying.
"He said I was finally the husband that most the time I wasn't and I became a
friend a friend would like to have. And all the sudden going fishin' wasn't such an imposition and I went three times
that year I lost my dad. Well I finally read the good book and I took a good
long hard look at what I'd do if I could do it all again and then
I went sky
diving. I went Rocky Mountain climbing. I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu
Manchu. And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter and I gave forgiveness I'd been
denying. And he said someday I hope you get the chance to live like you were
dying. "Like tomorrow was a gift
and you got eternity to think about what'd you do with it what did you do with
it what did I do with it what would I do with it." We do take so much for granted. We don't
know what the future holds so we need to live today to its fullest.
Some people don't get a second chance to correct their errors. Their lives end suddenly without the opportunity to be the father they could have been or to be the friend they should have been.
If today was your last day here on earth, and you only had today to mend any relationships that need mending, would you have more to do than you can do in a single day?
I have been involved with several people lately who know the number of days they have left is short. I try to think what it would be like if I knew I wasn't going to be able to walk my daughter down the aisle on her wedding day or to be a grandfather to my grandchildren.
The solution isn't to feel sorry for those who have fewer days. Prayer and encouragement is what they need. But we have a lesson to be learned from how they live their lives.
What if every day we got up with an urgency in our world believing that we had six months left to make an impact on the world around us and at the end of six months, whatever we didn't accomplish would be left undone and any broken relationships not fixed would be left broken? Would we be more patient? Would we listen more? Would we be less judgmental?
My challenge to you is to live today to the fullest because it is the only day you can live. Tomorrow is not guaranteed for any one of us. What you did yesterday is now history and cannot be changed. What you have set months ahead is still months ahead. Today is the day that you need to live.
Maybe you need to take more risks. Maybe you need to be the friend you have needed to be. Maybe you need to spend more time with your family.
What you receive dies with you, what you give lives on after you are gone. Maybe you should live life like you were dying.
Just a thought...
