What if I had 6 months to live?
On Tuesday, I read the following “Like an hourglass with a certain number of grains of sand within it, God has appointed your life to last only a certain number of days, and you have absolutely no idea how many there are. … In God’s presence, consider: I have no idea when my life will end. All I know is that death will come for me eventually. Am I doing anything to prepare for the real possibility that God may call me, sooner rather than later? If he called me into eternity today, would I be ready?” (Madrid, Patrick, “A Year with the Bible-Scriptural Wisdom for Daily Living,” Saint Benedict Press, September 5, 2012). This got me thinking, what if I knew I had only six months to live? As I contemplated this, I did not create a bucket list of things I wanted to do or places I wanted to visit. Rather, I started to think about my daily life and how I might live differently.
Where can I start? First, I am a self-described “judgy” person. As much as I try, I often judge someone based on what I see and not what I know. As an example, I have been driving my grandson to pre-school one day a week for about 5 months. I have noticed that one mom at drop-off parks her Range Rover in the driveway rather than parking in the lot where the rest of us park. My first thought is, “She must think she is special.” Why do I immediately go to that? There are a variety of reasons why she might park where she does, and it does not matter. My days would be brighter if I trained myself to avoid negative thoughts in the moment.
On the same day, I heard the following lyrics “I don't know what it's like to be you, You don't know what it's like to be me, What if we're all the same in different kinds of ways” (For King and Country, “Relate”). How different would my life be if I understood and acted like others were just like me on the inside even though they might look different on the outside? They have the same basic needs and want to be accepted, recognized, and loved by others just like I do. My days would be fuller by exploring relationships with people I might not have before.
Finally, I find myself always thinking of the next thing. The next book I am going to read, the next project I am going to tackle, the next thing on my “to do” list. It’s not to say that these things aren’t important or need to be accomplished but what if I could learn to find more meaning in between? How can I use the in-between time in a more meaningful way? If I could, my life and the impact I make would be much greater.
What would you do if you knew you only had 6 months left to live?