Today is it.

I’ve been really appreciating life recently. Why? Because life is a pure gift. If I ever begin to feel entitled to anything, anyone, or any endeavor in my life, I pray that that entitlement dies. Otherwise, I will die with that thing. Life is too precious, and too meaningful, to allow things that really don’t matter to have a say. And since when was life something we earned or worked for? Did you choose to be born? Did you decide to live? Did you get to say whether or not you would be conceived and brought into the world?

I’m no longer of the perspective that I’m guaranteed tomorrow. I think I wouldn’t have ever said that’s what I genuinely believed, but I also hadn’t decided yet that time would end for me at some point, or that I was invincible to time (aka immortal). I’m not guaranteed even five more minutes of life. The sun could blow up. Aliens could invade the earth. I could die of a heart attack. I could get shot. A car could hit me. The list is endless, honestly. I’ve never really thought about that before lol, but it’s honestly comical to think about how many millions of ways I could go.

And you know what? Those thoughts are thoughts I don’t have to think. You don’t need to think every thought that comes into your mind. You have the power. You are the only one who gets to decide what you’re going to let into your life, and what you’re going to leave behind. You’re way more powerful than you probably know. I certainly know I’m oftentimes the one to limit myself most.

And it’s also very worthwhile to face death. We are all going to die. We don’t get to decide when or why. Like our existence, like our birth, we don’t get to choose immortality. It doesn’t work that way.

I find that I wasn’t willing to embrace today as all that I have earlier on in life because I wasn’t ready yet to embrace that the end for me would come someday (or honestly at any point). It’s way easier to distract, stuff down, and not feel pain or discomfort. Way, way easier. I’ve been there, done that. And it has done me incredible disservices. I’ve been less able to feel and experience joy, love, gratitude, hope, and all the amazing things of life because of what I cut myself off from. Don’t give in to just dealing with it later (or never really). You’re meant to be alive, not just survive. What kind of a life is that?

And so: you’re going to die and it’s worth reckoning with. Why? Because, even though it’s painful and extremely scary, there is genuine freedom on the other side of it. And you get to prepare yourself for what’s bound to happen anyways. That preparation process is extremely important, and extremely rewarding. I cannot emphasize that enough.

Once we allow ourselves to experience and feel pain, embrace uncertainty, stop distracting ourselves, and really sit with what makes us super uncomfortable (i.e. death), I promise you: you will find a resolution to the fear. Stop living afraid, and start embracing discomfort. Why? So that you can taste genuine life on the other side. It’s incredibly liberating to live with the perspective that my end could be anytime. I’ve relinquished “control” that wasn’t even mine to begin with. That kind of control is a complete facade. And so, every moment I have left here is a pure gift from above. I’m never guaranteed more time. And so, every bit of it I have is worth living into completely.

Today is it. Today is all that we have. It is foolish to believe otherwise. None of us can predict the future. No database, no SQL code, no predictive software can perfectly predict what’s going to happen in the world 50 milliseconds, 50 months, or even 50 years from now. If you think that you’re guaranteed tomorrow, please confront me. I’m willing to listen to you, pray for you, and encourage you in the life that you’re pursuing. Do consider though that anything, good and evil, is possible. Thus, it’s possible that you may not actually have tomorrow to do what you know you need to be doing today.

So, my challenge to all of us (definitely including myself!): why wait till tomorrow, or the next day, or the next, to put off what you know - deep down - you’ve been wanting to do now? You may not even get tomorrow, so that question may not even be pertinent soon anyways.

Today is it. It’s all that we have. Pull the trigger. Stop distracting yourself and live into the life, fully, full speed ahead, that you’ve always been craving and wanting and dreaming about. We’re fooling ourselves to believe that we can tackle that pain later, or deal with that decision another day, or procrastinate on this or that. Don’t get me wrong: we are not capable of tackling everything all at once. Time is thus a gift, and we will get to everything that we’re meant to get to when we’re meant to get to it.

Life is a pure gift. That is 100% worth embracing. If we do, then the blessings will overflow. They already are. We just get to start tapping into that overwhelming, never-ending flow of gifts. Eyes up, everybody!! Life is precious, worth living and being alive for, not just getting through. Don’t wait until your end comes to realize you weren’t ever really alive in the first place. Wake up! Today. Wake up now. Let’s go!