By: Pastor Steve Wilmot
Edgerton, Ohio
If you knew you only had one month to live… You’d take the risks you’ve always been too afraid to take instead of playing it safe.
You’d step out of your comfort zone and hop on the roller coaster instead of settling for the kiddie rides of life.
You’d do things you always wanted to do. You’d whump up your courage and take chances you were afraid to take before. You wouldn’t care what anyone said about you.
No longer would you settle for barely surviving the daily hum-drum routine you’ve become accustomed to. You’d start living by faith — a life of meaning and fulfillment with no regrets.
Last Pastor’s Ponder’s, I introduced you to Bronnie Ware, the Australian hospice nurse who spent eight years with patients who had twelve weeks or less to live. You’ll recall, she asked these dying patients two questions:
•Do you have any regrets?
•If so, what are they?
As you discovered in my previous column, the second greatest regret on their list was “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”
Most Americans must work. Maybe we’d quit if we knew we only had a month to live, but it’s not practical when we assume we have many years left. But that doesn’t mean we have to make work something that sucks the passion out of us.
It’s what Paul meant when he begged the Corinthian believers, “please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us” (2 Corinthians 6.1).
If you knew your time on earth was ending soon, you wouldn’t waste it on things that don’t really matter. If you’re honest, you’d have to admit there are things you do that don’t count when weighed in the scales of real value. Things in your daily routine you’d jettison without a moment’s hesitation.
What’s on your list? When you look at your life that way it begins to put things in perspective, doesn’t it? When the clock ticks ever closer to midnight, your vision becomes clearer. You’d want to spend every single minute on the things that matter.
What would that look like? Your relationship with Jesus and family and friends would suddenly take on a whole new urgency. Most of the things that interfere with these relationships today would be easy to give up tomorrow.
You wouldn’t “squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given [you].” You’d live for things that are important. Things that are valuable.
Back to Nurse Ware’s survey on regrets. The number one answer she heard from most of her hospice patients was: “I wish I would have had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”
Nurse Ware writes, “This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled.
Most people have not honored even half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made or not made. Health brings a freedom very few realize, until they no longer have it.”
What dreams have God placed in your heart? Are you actively pursuing them in your day-to-day life?
For most people, the answer is no. They’ve given up on their dreams. They’re afraid they’ll fail so they conclude it’s better not to go after them. They’ve put them away like they did the dolls and baseball cards they played with as kids.
That’s one reason we’ve compiled such a long bucket list. We’ve put off experiencing the life we hope we can one day live.
Erma Bombeck once wrote, “There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say, ‘Yes, I’ve got dreams, of course I’ve got dreams.’ Then they put the box away and bring it out once in a while to look in it, and yep, they’re still in there.”
God doesn’t want you to stash your dreams away in a box only to be reminded from time to time they’re still there… unfulfilled. He doesn’t want you to squash your dreams because you fear failure.
Instead, he urges you to go full throttle after the life he planned for you, and he promises to get you there if you’ll follow his lead.
John Henry Newman added, “Fear not that your life should come to an end, but rather that it shall never have a beginning.”
Take steps today to realign your life to major on what matters — your relationship with God and family — so you don’t look back with regrets when you get to the end of your life.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.