Expiration Date

"Now listen, you who say, `Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. " - James 4:13-14

"...man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment..."- Hebrews 9:27

For a moment imagine that you have been diagnosed with terminal cancer. By the time the doctors figured out what you had it was too late. The cancer has spread and your options were exptremely limited. I can't imagine how that feels- to know that "your time" is on the horizon. If this were you, what would you do with the time you had left? How would you live today differently?


Not to be a big downer, but we're all "terminal." All of us are going to die. A person with a terminal prognosis just happens to know the window of when it may happen. None of us is guaranteed tomorrow. Only God knows. We all have an expiration date, but we live oblivious to when that will happen. How weird would it be if we had an expiration date tattooed on us from birth, like alot of items we buy at the grocery store!? It would probably drive many of us crazy to know when "our time" is appointed. Whether we are 32, like myself, or 80 we never think that we're going to die anytime soon. But wouldn't it make you live with more of a sense of urgency, to take advantage and appreciate every moment? If your date was October 5, 2008 what would you do on October 4? I think we all need to live like that today because it could very well be our last.

If you think about it, we're all on bonus time from God. Life is so short in comparison to eternity. We all need to make sure that we're ready for eternity because our time may come quicker than we know. (Cue "Live Life Like You Were Dying" by Tim McGraw)

"Live Like You Were Dying"

He said, "I was in my early forties with a lot of life before me

when a moment came that stopped me on a dime.

And I spent most of the next days looking at the x-rays

Talking bout the options and talking bout sweet time."

I asked him, "When it sank in that this might really be the real end?

How’s it hit you when you get that kinda news? Man what’d you do?"

And he said, "I went sky diving.

I went Rocky Mountain climbing.

I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fmanchu.

And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter.

And I gave forgiveness I’d been denying.

And he said, "Someday I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying."

He said, "I was finally the husband that most the time I wasn’t.

And I became a friend a friend would like to have.

And all the sudden going fishin wasn’t such an imposition.

And I went three times that year I lost my dad.

Well I finally read the Good Book and I took a good long hard look

at what I’d do if I could do it all again."

Like tomorrow was a gift,

And you got eternity,

To think about what you’d do with it.

And what did you do with it?

And what can I do with it?

And what would I do with it?

Sky diving I went Rocky Mountain climbing.

I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fumanchu.

And then I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter

and I watched an eagle as it was flying

And he said, "Someday I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying.

To live like you were dying.

To live like you were dying.

To live like you were dying.

To live like you were dying.