Living for no Tomorrow

Does it matter?

Yeah--it does.

Driving yesterday, I heard a song on the radio. I have heard the song many times before and I usually sing along with it a that mindless way that I do while driving.

The song is Good to be Alive and it is performed by Jason Gray.

Yesterday was different. One part of the lyrics (as it usually does) really hit me yesterday--

I wanna live like there's no tomorrow

Love like I'm on borrowed time

It's good to be alive

I won’t take it for granted

I won’t waste another second

All I want is to give you

A life well lived, to say “thank you”

And I questioned myself for a long time in the heavy Maryland rush hour traffic.

Can I do that? How would things be different if I lived like that?

I have heard it said the "No one is promised tomorrow." By the way--that is not a bible verse although many would have you believe that it is--the concept may be there but the exact words are not. But, recognizing that tomorrow may be very different.

This brought me to another song--a country song by Tim McGraw called Live Like You Were Dying and a series of lyrics in the refrain of that song--

I went sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing,

I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.

And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,

And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying.

An' he said: "Some day, I hope you get the chance,

"To live like you were dyin'.

And I wonder, 

I know a people who are there right now. Facing the "no tomorrow" who are trying to come to live like it is not going to be there. These songs suggest that it is a freeing experience. I see the hurt and the conflict in their lives and relationships. It is clearly not the fantasy land that the song writer's suggest.

But even with that in mind, and since I still have the belief that tomorrow is going to be there and be better, what is it going to take for me to crawl out from behind appointment filled schedule that I'm living and truly begin living?  Because, I think I will not only be a better person to be around--but I'll enjoy watching the sunrise over the ocean.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD