There are a few things I know about you. Your life began at childbirth. Your life will end after you breathe your last breath. A lot will happen in between. That is life. After life comes death.
So if we are all headed towards our last breath, what does that mean? How does how your story ends impact what you do today?
Each of us has been touched by death, some more recently than others.
It may be a family member, a friend, or even a pet. Death always seems so final. It usually arrives unannounced without adequate time to prepare. Some deaths are more unexpected than others. I don’t know if there’s ever a way to be fully prepared when you lose a loved one.
Although not knowing the specific date, some have advance knowledge that their days are few, such as those with terminal diseases or those on hospice. Those facing terminal diseases typically fight like crazy to prevent from breathing their last breath. Those on hospice make plans for their last breath.
All our stories have the same ending. We will all exit this earth at some point.
Covid has had an impact on our existence being a matter of life and death. I don’t believe anyone wants to catch it, but some have been much more afraid of this unpredictable disease than others.
Those who believe in the afterlife see facing death differently than those who don’t. I like the phrase “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”
Two years ago I was flown 200 miles away in an ambulance jet with a dissected aorta. My wife was told I probably wouldn’t survive the flight before I left. Believing in heaven, I was not afraid of dying and there was a peace about my possible dying. I’ve been blessed more than anyone deserves in the 60 plus years I’ve lived.
My concern wasn’t about me. It was about my wife of 34 years (at the time) and my two adult children, one of which was making plans to get married later that year. In my mind I played out how the future of these three would be without a husband and a father. I didn’t like any of the scenarios. I had more husbanding and more parenting in me. I also had a responsibility to those who worked for me and the clients I serve.
From time to time I think of what we leave unfinished when we breathe our last breath. I don’t know if anyone who has ever lived has felt they accomplished everything they wanted do before dying. I know that I won’t. That’s why I feel an urgency to living each day.
I also wonder from time to time that if I knew my days were few, what might I have wished I’d done differently in the days I lived. This doesn’t last long as I very quickly turn my thoughts towards the abundance of blessings I’ve received in the years I’ve lived.
Death seems so final. But if life is lived right, death is not final. What you receive dies with you, but what you give lives on after you are gone. In other words, a person who lives life right lives on in the others they’ve impacted before their death. One person dies, but the investment he or she has made in others continues on.
On Jackie Robinson’s tombstone is the phrase “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” Amen. Who are you impacting? What are you impacting?
The average life expectancy in the United States is around 78 years with women living closer to 81. Your date of death is not known at this time, yet the impact you leave on others is still being determined.
We visited a grave site in a small town in Switzerland where they dig up bodies many years after they die to make room for new bodies. We told our friend who grew up in the village that we thought this was an awkward practice. He accurately responded that after several generations, no one remembers those whose bodies are removed anyhow.
Don’t worry about changing the world 100 years in the future. No one will remember you then. Change it now.
Bottom line, those who live long enough are blessed with many years. It is hard to see people get old, lose the flexibility they’ve lived with, and maybe lose quality of life. An insignificant event to any 33 year old can become a dramatic happening in the life of an 83 year old. The world looks different depending what age you are looking at it from.
Considering all of the above, it doesn’t matter if you are 19 or 91, each day brings the same 24 hours. You live a day and then you go to sleep. You live the next day and then you go to sleep. As your days click off, is there an urgency to your life?
My challenge to you is to live your life. No, really LIVE your life. Don’t lose a single day because you take tomorrow for granted. Don’t lose a single day because you want to have a pity party for yourself. Forge on!
There will be more years without you on this planet than with you on it. Life is short. Experience it fully.
Live your life with the end in mind, because one day it will arrive.
Live your life so the pastor can tell the truth about your life at your funeral. I know there are funerals out there where guests at the funeral wonder if the pastor is talking about the same person they knew while he was alive.
Recognize your life today is a gift. There are many out there who would love to live your day today if you don’t want to.
Make the most of today. One thing is for sure, when you go to bed tonight you have one less day to live than you had yesterday. And tomorrow is not guaranteed to any of us.
It is all right to be selfish from time to time, but the core of your life should be pouring yourself into the lives of others and, when your life is over, your life will live on in them.
Just a thought...
Rick Kraft is a motivational speaker, a syndicated columnist, a published author, and an attorney. To submit comments, contributions, or ideas, e-mail to rkraft@kraftlawfirm.org or write to P.O. Box 850, Roswell, New Mexico, 88202 - 0850.
