Tomorrow

Today at Noondays (the free lunch provided by my school's Baptist Student Ministries), the speaker made a thought-provoking comment. Actually, his whole message was stimulating, but one phrase in particular stood out.

"Some people didn't wake up this morning."

I immediately became absorbed in this thought. To me, every person is a story. Every life has a tale of its own. And I began pondering the lives of those who may not have lived through the night, who may not have woken up to a brand new, glorious morning as I did.

I thought about an elderly woman, spending her last nights in a stark white hospital room, knowing her end was drawing near. Was anybody with her in her last moments? I thought of an older man, drawing his last breath at home, surrounded by loving family members. He had lived a full life and would be missed. Yet he was going to a better place.

I thought about two college students driving back to their dorm after staying out just a little too late, drinking just a little too much. Singing along with the blaring stereo. Did they see the 18-wheeler as it barreled through the intersection and smacked into their smaller vehicle, crumpling the side of the gray Honda? Was there time for a last thought to cross their mind before they never thought again? How would their fellow students, their girlfriends, their parents grieve when they learned of the accident?

I thought about a young boy rushed to the hospital by frantic parents for an unexpected health issue. A ruptured appendix, maybe. I thought about his youthful blue eyes never opening again. His sobbing, heart-broken mother and father. His little sister not understanding that she would never get to play with her brother again, not realizing that he would never chase her or tease her again. Not realizing that he wouldn't be there to support her through the toughest moments of her life, to clap and cheer for her through her proudest.

I thought about a teenage girl lying in a filthy alleyway, tucked behind some dumpsters. She was somebody's daughter, too. But would anybody miss her? Would anyone know she had left this life? Or would she be just another soul for whom the flame of life was snuffed too soon?

Some 155,000 people die every day. Tomorrow it could be you or me. Do we find ourselves saying "I'll take care of that tomorrow?" Those college students probably planned on finishing that lab report or that research paper tomorrow, too. Life is a fickle thing. There's no guarantees that you will live to your next birthday or until the weekend or even through the night. So don't waste each precious moment that you're granted. Live each day as if it matters... because it does.