How do you live like there’s no tomorrow?
In the last year, I’ve been constantly reminded of the fragile line between life and death.
Jason Gray’s song, “Good to Be Alive” has the refrain that says, “I wanna live like there’s no tomorrow, love like I’m on borrowed time”. He encourages us to live our lives well which is an excellent recommendation.
I used to view this song differently. When I heard it, I thought about such things as making a difference in my home and community so that I wasn’t wasting any time but making an impact for a better world. It was about something bigger than me, yet somehow it was still very selfish by being all about me. Thinking like that can lead to feeling pressured especially if you didn’t accomplish anything profound for months on end, just living and maintaining some sense of order in a busy life. This can lead to thinking that spirals down to feeling sad for not doing anything worthwhile or special in a grander scheme of things. In this, being average or normal somehow seems like failing.
Now, this song is a positive song. I like this song. It’s great. It is about how wonderful it is to be alive. This is true!
It isn’t great to be me-centered which is what most of us do, if we are honest. What will make me happy? What do I want to do? What should I do? Do I have time for this? How will I be fulfilled? How can I make this better? Why do I feel sad? What were my motives? How will I be remembered? What could I have done to make the situation better? Our life really isn’t all about us.
While we are out living our lives, whether it is an exciting day or a quiet, ho-hum day, most people take the day for granted. We plan what we’re going to do tomorrow, next week, next year. We set long term goals. All of this is great. We all need motivation.
But what if we learn we have a fatal disease or a loved one’s prognosis is grim? The doctor’s “life sentence” is shocking. It’s scary. It makes you think.
Jason Gray’s song is about not taking life for granted. When you have someone in your life with a terminal illness, suddenly your thinking changes. Among all the questions of what and why and how, there are questions of how can I be more intentional? What matters most? What is the best use of my time? What do we want to do and who do we want to include?
Accomplishments aren’t that important anymore. It’s more about loving people. Certainly taking care of yourself and your stuff has to be done, but the stuff doesn’t really matter. What is stuff? It breaks, rots, gets lost or given away. Why do we worry so much about our stuff?
I’ve been thinking about what can we do together to make a happy, fun memory? What can we talk about that will bring joy and smiles? If we really only had today, would we be doing what we’re doing right now, or would we be doing something else?
Have you let the people you love know how much you love them and how much they matter?
Are you at peace with the transition into eternity? Despite the sorrow, how do you feel?
So what does living like there is no tomorrow and loving like you’re on borrowed time look and mean to you?
I’m not sure we grasp it. It’s the same as with the question, “Would you act like this if Jesus was physically beside you?” We still do crazy or foolish things even though Jesus is right beside us in spirit.
It’s good to strive to live that way, but I’m not sure how it looks in reality. You see, I’m writing this today believing I have lots of tomorrows, but maybe I don’t. I don’t want to have any regrets, but I know I do.
Life is short. The older I get, the more this is driven home. Make the most of your day. As my late father-in-law once said, “Don’t sweat the small stuff. It’s all small stuff.” Yet I still get upset about things that don’t actually matter. Oh, will we ever learn?
Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” May it be so.
6 Replies to “How do you live like there’s no tomorrow?”
Mrs. Welsh, this is another great article. Adding this to my favorites list. I agree with the key points in this article. I myself, struggle with trying to make the most of each day sometimes when I feel I am not getting things accomplished efficiently or when I am feeling down. I think it is important to love each day as your last and to make sure the ones around you know they are loved immensely by us and by God. I too enjoy the song by Jason Gray “Good to be alive.” Thank you for your encouraging articles.. 🙂
Thank you for commenting and encouraging me with your kind words. It is always nice to know others share the same struggles and joys. We can never be reminded enough that God loves us and that we should let others know we love them, too. I appreciate your taking time to share with us. 🙂
I struggle with being intentional, though I do try to let people know how much I love them. Like you said, there’s so much talk of being exceptional, of doing big things, but doesn’t somebody have to be ordinary? haha!
Good post, Michelle!
Thanks for sharing, Mary! Your comment about exceptional and ordinary made me smile. 🙂 Being intentional, though we try to be, is hard to do, I agree! I’m glad we can encourage each other along in this pursuit. 🙂
Michelle, this is an important, and difficult, question. It seems that on one hand we have people/articles encouraging us to “live like there is no tomorrow,” and then there are those encouraging us to “live as though Jesus may come tomorrow”, or even today. I am a very scheduled person. Sometimes that is a great quality to have. Other times it is a maddening habit to have. I think both ways of thinking, live like there is now tomorrow, and live like Jesus may come at any minute, are admirable, and needed at various times in our lives. I think I will hang onto both.
I understand exactly what you mean by being a scheduled person. I, too, like my schedules. You are right in that we need to somehow incorporate them both. Keeping them in mind, we just do our best. 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing, Donna.