Sky Diving Should Not Top Your Bucket List

Many know the lyrics by heart of Tim McGraw’s famous song “Live Like You’re Dying.” You know where he says “I went sky diving, rocky mountain climbing, I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fumanchu. I’m sorry, but if I just found out that I had only months left to live none of those things would top my bucket list.

In defense of a great song, I do think the rest of the lyrics are well worth topping anyone’s bucket list. McGraw says, “And I loved deeper, And I spoke sweeter, And I gave forgiveness I’ve 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 fishing, 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. And then.”

I’ve been by the bedside of hundreds of dying men and women. I’ve been there when they first discoverd the news. I’ve watched how knowing they were dying radically changed the way they viewed and lived life. In fact, being around those folks has dramitically changed my own life perspective and approach.

Honestly, we’re all just one step closer to the grave. Our days on earth are numbered, short, and uncertain. “Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is not promised, and today is a gift. That’s why they call it he present.” I have no idea how you might be living your life. But, I hope you’re living like you’re dying. This is done best by focusing on things that don’t just matter in this life, but in the life to come. Focusing not on the temporary, but the eternal. Seeking not our will, but God’s will.

” 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. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. (James 4:13-17)(NIV)