"If Today Was Your Last Day"

A commentary by Jeremy Lallier

If today was your last day and tomorrow was too late,
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?

While browsing the Internet I came across this Nickelback song, "If Today Was Your Last Day" from their Dark Horse album, and realized it raises some real interesting questions:

Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past?
Donate every dime you had, if today was your last day?
What if, what if, if today was your last day?

Against the grain should be a way of life.
What's worth the price is always worth the fight.
Every second counts 'cause there's no second try.
So live like you're never living twice;
Don't take the free ride in your own life.

Suppose today was your last day. Would you be happy with where everything stands? Have you accomplished everything you wanted to? Are you the person you want to be? And how about your relationships with others? With God?

It can be a scary thought, honestly. If today was our last day, our next waking moment would find us face-to-face with our Creator. Are you prepared for that? Or are there things in your life you were still hoping to get around to fixing "sometime later"?

The truth is, none of us have the luxury of knowing when our last day is. Life is not like studying for a test. You can't put important things off and then hope to cram them all in at the last minute because we have no idea when that last minute is. For all we know, today is our last day.

But that doesn't mean hope is gone. It's just a matter of choosing to live every day as if it is your last, which for us means several things:

• It means living against the grain of society as a way of life.
• It means knowing that living God's way may carry a price tag, but that the cost is easily worth it.
• It means that if God is working with us now, we don't get a second life—only the seconds we have now.
• It means not taking the path of least resistance, but putting our might into the things we do.

The writer of Ecclesiastes spent much of his life trying to find the most satisfying, rewarding way to live life. In the end, he admonished his readers to "rejoice…in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these God will bring you into judgment" (Ecclesiastes 11:9).

Then he finished the inspired book with these words, "Let us hear the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all" (Ecclesiastes 12:13). To understand that conclusion even better, take a moment to also read "Ecclesiastes: The Thinking Young Adult's Guide to Life."

In other words: God has an amazing life prepared for you and for me. He has given you a guidebook filled with wisdom and truth so that you will know how to get the absolute most out of it. He has also given you this day.

So what are we waiting for? Let's get out there and live it! VT