Live Like We are Dying

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.  Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. James 4.13-17

This verse has been on my heart since yesterday.  I found a quote a while ago and set it on my skype ID as my quote: "God, during my vapor what have You called me to do?"

This weekend was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time.  It was because I lived it with purpose.  I purposefully scheduled time with each of my girls and did things with them that I knew they loved.  Abby and I went and sat at a park with our sketch pads and just drew.  It was pretty cool.  She did a great charcoal picture of some flowers, while I doodled different elements of the park.

Hannah and I went to the driving range.  Granted, I really like to do this and Hannah has never done anything more than putt-putt, but she has asked me a lot about when we would go putt-putting again. So we got a loaner club from the driving range and hit a bucket full of balls.  She is now asking when we are gonna play golf again and that she wants her own "puck" (golf club) to play with.

Jen and I went out to a movie and then a nice dinner at Season's 52 (our favorite place).  It was a great dinner to catch up with my wife and see her heart again.  Many times in life you just get comfortable with someone and then you lose sight of their hearts.  It was wonderful to smile, cry and laugh together as we walk through this life.

While at dinner, I received a phone call from my dad that my uncle, who is 3 years older than me and more like my brother, had a stroke.  This sent my heart and mind into a tail spin.  He is only 39 and in good health.  This type of stroke usually happens to older people with high blood pressure.  He doesn't have either one of these.

This just serves as a reminder to me that I'm not guaranteed the next breath, much less tomorrow.  That is what today's passage tells us.  We do a lot of bragging and planning, but live like we are entitled to the next breath.  I live with the assumption that I will make it home from work to kiss my wife and girls and tell them once again, "I love you."  But I am not guaranteed the next moment, much less this evening.

With this morbid thought, we have one of two choices.  We can either let this settle in our hearts and cause us to live our lives paralyzed by fear emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically or we can use it to motivate us to live our lives, every moment, on purpose - without regret.  I choose this day, this moment, right now to live without regret.  I choose to take my wisp of a vapor, called life, and use it bring glory to God my Father in Heaven to make sure that everyone who comes in touch with me right now knows I and God love them tremendously.

Let me close by allowing my inner-red-neck to come out.  Take a look at the lyrics to this Tim McGraw song entitled, Live Like You Were Dying:

Verse 1
He said I was in my early forties, with a lot of life before me
And one moment came that stopped me on a dime
I spent most of the next days, looking at the x-rays
Talking bout' the options and talking bout' sweet times.
I asked him when it sank in, that this might really be the real end
How's it hit 'cha when you get that kind of news?
Man what did ya do?
He said

Chorus
I went skydiving
I went rocky mountain climbing
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu
And I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denyin'
And he said some day I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin'

Verse 2
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 of a sudden goin' 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

Bridge
Like tomorrow was the end
And ya got eternity to think about what to do with it
What should you do with it
What can I do with it
What would I do with it

Join me in living like we are dying.  NO REGRETS!!! Take a moment and tell those closest to you that you love them.  Speak kindly today to those you come in contact with. Forgive those who have hurt you. Don't waste another moment...seize them with joy and purpose.