Tomorrow is never promised...

Okay, I don't mean to be a downer here, but this is going to be a little bit of a more somber blog. Something happened to me while I was working this last hitch, and if anything good has come of it, it has been to remind me that everything can change in the blink of an eye.

There was an incident on my rig that resulted in me coming within 3-4 inches of being speared in the back of the head with a 1500 pound piece of drill pipe. I won't go into detail, but I was working, and heard someone yell, "Whoa!" immediately followed by the sound of a metal clang. I looked over my right shoulder and a couple inches from the end of my nose was sitting a piece of pipe. Had I been standing 6 inches to my right (which "coincidentally" I had been all morning, but wasn't at this moment), the pipe would have speared into me from behind and literally taken my head off. Work was immediately stopped on the rig, and wouldn't proceed for 18 hours as we had a safety stand down and didn't get our clearance to proceed until half way through our shift the next day.

It didn't hit me right away, but as I sat down and started processing everything that had just happened, I began to shake uncontrollably. The cup of water in my hand was spilling out all over my hand and the floor below me, even though I was holding it with both hands. Inevitably, I began thinking about my wife and children... what would have happened to them? Who would have called them and told them? Would they be covered financially, or did I not do enough? My son is only 4 months old... how would he grow up never knowing his father? My daughter is 4 years old... but how fuzzy would her memories become in the years ahead? What was the last thing I said to my wife?

Thank God the outcome wasn't what it could have or should have been. But it really opened my eyes to the reality that nothing is promised to us.

James says, "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."

I know I am plenty guilty of this. I have plans for the future... grand plans, if I do say so myself. Plans to be debt free, to live in a nice house, to spend my days off traveling the world or fly fishing in a mountain stream. Plans of future ministries. I have plans. And sometimes I find myself living in my future... dreaming about days to come and ignoring today.

But through this experience, I've learned that of the two things: present and future, only one is certain. So why waste time living in the future? Take today while its here. Enjoy what you have right now, don't waste time dreaming about what you don't have.

Live each day to the fullest. Eat, drink and be merry... for tomorrow we die. I'm not advocating a hedonistic lifestyle here (and am very aware of the scripture that speaks out against the pagans with such a mindset), but rather a life of living for the moment. Live for today... grab life by the horns... don't wait!!! You may be waiting to do something until the time is "right"... thats bullcrap... do it now! How robbed would you feel if you never got the chance to do it because you kept putting it off?

Call your mom or dad, husband or wife and tell them that you love them. You never know when the last time you'll get to say this will be. Someday it will be someone else calling them to tell them you're not coming home... how do you want your last conversation to be remembered? How many people left for work on the morning of Sept. 11th thinking they would be back to resolve that stupid little argument with their spouse? And now they'll forever have that in their memories as their last conversation.

All I'm trying to say is to seize the moment... seize the day! We get too comfortable in this life assuming that we have 80 years, plus or minus a few, to accomplish everything we want to. But that's not true, and its sure as hell not guaranteed! Our time on this earth is limited and we need to make the most of it while we can.

Live from your heart. Live from your passions. Live from your desires. And for God's sake, start doing it today!