Live Like You Are Dying

The other day, while driving my truck through west Texas, I tuned my radio dial to the only station that it was able to receive. It was a local country music station. At first thought, some city dwellers I know may have rather turn off their stereo completely than to embrace the sounds of country music. However, this city born, New Orleans native felt quite differently than most others I know. Being one who appreciates the genre, I was immediately drawn in by the sounds of country music superstar Tim Mcgraw. The song that was playing was one of my favorites, "Live Like You Were Dying." I’ve listened to this song many times before, but today it had a different impact upon me.

First of all, we are all born into this world with one very important thing in common: at some point, we all must die. Although this is a fact, we spend most of our time trying to preserve our lives and dismiss the idea that our physical demise is eminent. We attempt to eat healthy, make yearly pledges to exercise more, commitments to driving safely, and oaths to protect our homes and children from harm. There’ nothing wrong with any of these things, but we soon become consumed in fear of losing our lives, or something deeply connected to it, so much that our primary focus is not living, but instead our primary goal is NOT dying. Even in anti-aging attempts, our main focus is not to grow older, because older represents being closer to the ultimate end. Therefore, we utilize every possible resource to preserve our youth. There is so much focus on not dying that we forget to live.

As the song by Tim Mcgraw opens, the story of a man who has possibly been diagnosed with cancer begins. In this chilling account, the listener is given the vivid image of a man in his early forties observing his x-rays and is giving his life much thought. However, after receiving such news, the relatively young man decides to go on what can be called by some, as Kanye West refers to, as a “living spree”, or adventurous life-style in search of greater meaning of self and happiness.

The lyrics of this song began to truly resonate in my spirit. I thoroughly thought my life through and wondered about the meaning of life and what it means to discover true happiness. If my life were to abruptly come to an end, would my soul be content in knowing that I enjoyed the simple beauties that exist in this world? Or would I be like so many others, who are afraid to die, because they have yet to learn how to live?

For as long as I can remember I was always taught to “never fear death.” In my Christian home, I was taught that physical death was just a transition from this realm of existence to another. I was also taught that the life a person lives speaks for them in their death, and we will all be held accountable for our life’s action.

Certainly, I’m not writing these words to persuade anyone to my beliefs; however, I’m surely convinced that whoever reads this will at some point in time meet his or her final breath, and it shouldn’t be that when we are faced with dying that we suddenly begin to have the urge to live.

The character in the song, when faced with death, finally decides to “become the husband that most of the time [he] wasn’t and became the friend a friend would love to have.” He also decided to “give forgiveness that [he'd] been denying.”

We should not wait until we are faced with tragic news to be more kind, loving, or forgiving. Everyday is a gift. It is unque in all of it’s experiences rendered and lessons taught. We must not take any of those moments for granted as we enjoy the simple moments of life.

In the final verse of the song, it says, “[live] like tomorrow is a gift and you’ve eternity to figure out what did you do with it?” If you were to meet your final moment, can you say that you lived your life to the fullest? Will you be able to say that you truly lived in the abundance of life or were you consumed by just trying to survive? I urge you to begin to live like you were dying!