Tim McGraw's song "Live Like You Were Dying" tells the story of a man who gets some bad news, finds out he doesn't have much longer to live, and then sets out to do what he's always dreamed of doing. Tim McGraw points to this question in his lyrics, "What would you do if you got that type of news?" However, the tough reality is, we should all be living like we are dying. None of us knows how much time we have left, and the chance of death for all of us is 100 percent. You can't stop death, it's inevitable.
These are the beginning words to a similar song written by Ben Rector called "Like The World Is Going To End":
"If we found out that the world
was gonna end on Tuesday morning,
what would everybody do?
It's funny how the thought of that
can make something real important
and a lot of things pretty worthless too."
He goes on to say how he'd dance, laugh, cry, call those he loved, call people he needed to forgive and eat ice cream every morning. Why not? We need to live like the world is going to end, because we can only prolong the inevitable. Like Ben Rector says:
"We spend most our lives
and almost all our time
on what we don't care about.
What we could do without every tragedy
Is that we can't see it.
We can't see until time is running out."
So my questions to you are:
Are you really living like you are dying? Or are you just pondering the "what if" of everything and forgetting to live?
However, there is a backside to this. We cannot live our lives worrying about the inevitability of death. Worrying constantly does not do anyone any good. Matthew 6:25-34 reads:
"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is a live and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat? or 'What shall we drink? or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
The last part about not being anxious about tomorrow, since today has its own issues really gets me. We need to live one day at a time, as far as worries and anxieties go. But in general, we don't really know what tomorrow holds until we get there. And even then, any plans that we may have made are liable to change. So here are my thoughts. We need to live each day to the fullest, and really reflect on whether or not we are living like it might be our last day. Because you honestly don't know. But we shouldn't be worrying about if tomorrow is going to come or not. If it's going to come, it's going to come, but you still have today to deal with.
