We Only Live Once — Really?

When we served for Hospice Austin’s Camp Braveheart last June, I walked past this chalkboard art. I quickly backed up to read it, took a picture of it and here I am sharing it with you today.

Aw! We have to love Charles Schultz’s “Peanuts”. This time a chalk artist gave us a great comeback after Charlie Brown said “We only live once!” I love Snoopy’s reply: “Wrong, we only have to die once. We live every day!”

I get it. We are urged to seize the day, to go for it. WOLO (We Only Live Once) implies that we can live any way we want. But when this NOW moment is over, it will only exist in memories and pictures. So, go ahead! Take the plunge! Live any way you want! That mindset opens the door to reckless behavior.

If you want to sleep around, then do it. If you want to take that little item and slip it into your pocket, then go for it. You only live once; so live! I remember Frank Sinatra’s song “I Did it My Way”! And “my way” often excludes “God’s way”!

That attitude of “We Only Live Once” is flawed. It has a wrong understanding about the world. It assumes that this material world, the here and now, is all there is. Heaven isn’t in the equation – and neither is hell. So, we do what we want, when we want, with whoever we want, because this is the only chance we’ve got.

Wrong thinking! Our Christian belief system says we are not an accident. We are not a random collection of cells that are here by chance only to disappear again. Every human being has been knit together by our God of the universe (Psalm 139:13). God is our cause AND our purpose!

This moment in our lives matters. God didn’t make us to simply “exist”, but to “live”. We are beings who serve a greater purpose. This purpose is written into our very DNA. Colossians 1:16 tells us that we have been made “by Christ and for Christ.” We don’t want to be passive about this truth but seize it.

We are here for a reason, and we have the potential to live lives full of meaning. When we love our neighbors as ourselves, and love the Lord God with all that we are, we are fulfilling our very purpose. (Matthew 22:36-40)

The “We Only Live Once” attitude has no space for life after death. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says: “God has set eternity in the human heart.” So, is the desire for eternity a good part of our thinking? Oh, yes it is!

We are hungry, and so we eat. We are thirsty, and so we drink. So, shouldn’t our desires include living a life on purpose so that eternity with our God is in the forefront of our minds?

Thankfully this world is not all there is! God is a good God. Goodness is a part of his character. And living with eternity in mind, instead of the YOLO (You Only Live Once) mindset, then everything matters.

By the power of the Holy Spirit Who is within us, we must live like children of God who attain to living pure and holy lives. “We Only Live Once!” Wrong! Snoopy is right. We live every day here until we are home sweet home with our Lord! So, let’s live each and every day with no regrets!