Life worth living

For all of my love of language, one thing I struggle to get behind is the idea of “living like there is no tomorrow” or “live like you only have X amount of time to live.” I appreciate the sentiment of not wasting time — but when I take the idea to its logical conclusion, I can’t follow it there. Not because I can’t understand the poetic, but because death demands attention.

If I were to live like I was going to die tomorrow, next week, or in a year, most of my current life goals would cease to be relevant. Not because my goals are empty, but because they demand a commitment a dying man cannot give.

If the grave were clearly on my horizon, finding a wife would become cruel. Building a business would become a waste of my limited time with my family. Developing skills I won’t use is time I could be spending getting my affairs in order so my loved ones wouldn’t be burdened.

Simply put, I already push myself to be better. Adding impending death to that pressure won’t help me achieve my goals — it only adds unnecessary obstacles to the things I actually want.

My goals require me to be alive next year, the year after, and the year after that. I never know what the future may hold. My life is in God’s hands. But I don’t live like I am dying — I live like I have a life worth living.

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