Why you should live today like it’s your last

Last night was my husband’s pick for a movie and he picked the movie called “United 93”, about one of the planes from 9/11 that ended up crashing. If you haven’t seen it and plan on watching it, don’t read this post any further because there will be spoilers! Here is my thoughts on why you should live today like it’s your last.

While watching the movie, one of the scenes that really got to me was the scene where the passengers on the plane were calling their loved ones to say good bye because they knew they were most likely going to die.

Being the emotional person that I am, I started to think about myself being in a position like that. Calling my husband or my children to say a final goodbye… I mean, can you imagine? Or even being the receiving end of a phone call like that… and there is literally nothing you can do about it… It’s completely out of your control.

We live in a world today where people think they are going to live forever. Sure, we all know that we will die one day (you know, when we are older or sometime in the future). We don’t usually think that death is right around the corner.

Why We Should live today like it’s our last

But death is out of our control. We don’t know when we are going to die. We could die from a freak accident that we never saw coming. You could be gone in a flash!

Some godly people who exercise regularly and eat well drop dead at every age. And some sedentary over eaters live to be ninety.
Our days are set by God, not us. You won’t live a day longer or shorter than God decides. But keep in mind that some people have survived the plunge over Niagara Falls. That doesn’t make it wise.

John Piper

The above quote was taken from Physical Exercise: What I do and Why by John Piper.

People live their lives by trying to get the nicest things. We try to earn more money to be wealthy and or sacrifice important relationships to get to the top. We live thinking better, bigger, and more the better. That we will finally achieve happiness in life and our lives will be complete.

Even if you gained everything you could imagine: dream home, the newest car, picture perfect family, and maybe even fame, you could come face to face with death and realize everything you worked hard for in life means nothing.

Our Lives Are Short

Our lives are short and we don’t notice it until it’s too late. I’ve been convicted of this recently. James 4:14 especially comes to my mind.

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

James 4:14 (ESV)

So if our lives are so short and everything is meaningless, now what?

Well, God instructs us to set our eyes on eternal things because everything on this earth will perish. God did give us responsibilities and relationships we can invest in. Maybe you have a spouse, kids, friendships, church family, or a ministry. These are the type of things we can pour into and invest in.

And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

1 John 2:17 (ESV)

We never know when someone can die or when we will die. That is why we need to live each day like it is our last. Life is too short to live each day like an ordinary day. Give 100% to be the best employee, student, spouse, and parent that you can be. 

Let’s live every day like it’s our last, so when we do come face to face with death we can look back and know we did our best. Better yet, we want to meet Jesus and have him tell us “Well Done.”

Have you ever had a moment close to death? What are your thoughts on living each day like it’s your last?

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When God Tells You “Not Yet”
God Wants To Fulfill Us