By: Steve Wilmot
Edgerton, Ohio
What if your doctor informed you that you only had one month to live? Would you do anything differently in your remaining days than you’re doing now? I believe we all would.
Instead of playing it safe, you’d take risks you’ve always been too afraid to take. Instead of settling for the kiddie rides of life, you’d step out of your comfort zone and hop on the roller coaster.
That’s what living with your eyes on the finish line is all about: enjoying life and pursuing your dreams, being courageous, and taking risks. It’s about doing what really matters instead of merely existing in the daily humdrum routine you’ve become accustomed to.
When you focus on the end of your life, you live by faith. You live with no regrets. I read about Bonnie Ware, an Australian hospice nurse who cares for patients who have twelve weeks or less to live. Over the years, she’s asked these dying patients two questions: Do you have any regrets? If so, what are they? Number two on their list was this: “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”
We all must work. It might be something we’d quit if a doctor said we only had a month to live, but it’s not practical when we may have years to live. But that doesn’t mean we must make work something that sucks the life out of us.
“This came from every male patient that I nursed,” Nurse Ware observed. “They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. All the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.”
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, MSG).
If we only had one month to live, we wouldn’t waste our time on things that don’t matter. If we are honest, we’d admit there are many things we do that aren’t that important—things we’d jettison from our daily routine if we knew we only had 30 days to live.
They seem important right now, but would they if you knew you only had one month to live? That puts things in perspective, doesn’t it? With the end in sight, our vision becomes clearer.
So, what if we lived as if we were dying? Our relationship with Jesus, family, and friends would suddenly take on urgency. We’d discard most of the obstructions that interfere with those relationships.
We wouldn’t “squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us.” We would live for the things that are important—the things that matter.
Back to Nurse Ware’s survey on regrets. The number one answer Nurse Ware heard from terminal patients in the last weeks of their life 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 die knowing it was due to choices they made. Health brings a freedom very few realize until they no longer have it.
Are you pursuing the dreams God placed in your heart every day of your life? For most people, the answer is no.
They’ve given up on their dreams. They’re afraid they’ll fail, so it’s better not to dream. They’ve put them away like they did with the dolls and baseball cards they played with as kids.
Erma Bombeck 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 away your dreams in a box only to recall from time to time that they’re still there—unfulfilled. Ephesians 3.20 assures us that God is able and willing to work within us to see those dreams come true.
“Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes.”
The good news about Nurse Ware’s sad report is that experiencing regret is not inevitable. You can learn from the regrets of others and start to live your life to the fullest today. You know you would if you only had one month to live.
“It is never too late to be what you might have been,” said George Eliot. You don’t have to look back on your life with regrets when you lie on your deathbed. Whether you do or don’t depends on the choices you make from here on.
Bonnie Ware’s patients would urge you to begin today—before it is too late.
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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.