It's not a dress rehearsal.

Why do we wait?

I can't be the only one.

"Life is too short" - you hear it all the time, but we don't really live that way - do we? I don't.

We wait until we move into that house we've always wanted, to get ourselves organized or exercise a creative idea for decorating. We say the dogs will be so much better behaved when we have the 6ft fence so they can properly exercise themselves...often. We wait to focus on getting ourselves back into shape until the stress of everyday life subsides; until we figure out the routine. There's things we want to do more of, more often, more generously, but we say now isn't the time because of X, I'll think about it some more and give back soon. We want to get into the habit of church so that we practice the faith everyday, but with a young child it's hard to predict how Sunday mornings will go.

And oh yeah, the "we"...is me of course.

Until this weekend.

My heart and my mind are heavy with thoughts and condolensces for a guy we all grew up with. He took his family out on the boat Saturday - pregnant wife, 3-year old boy, and wife's brother. They all went out together. Yet only he came home. A terribly tragic boating accident took his family - just like that. His pregnant wife and son are dead and brother-in-law is significantly injured.

He woke up that day not knowing the afternoon would be any different from the morning.

I've said to numerous people in my life RECENTLY "This is not a dress rehearsal...we get one go at this life." And quite frankly, I haven't been living like it. It's much easier to say those words than to do.

However, after being consumed by these saddening thoughts, breath-taking actually, I am committing to DO something about whatever I'm thinking about. Whether it's a conversation I need to have, a dream I want to follow, a something new I want to try....life IS too short. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. Cliche and true.

When Bill was in Afghanistan, it was inevitable to not think about what life would possibly look like if he didn't come back. And more recently, after Georgia, we were considering a stint in which I was forced again to think about what our life would look like if for some forsaken reason he didn't come home...just how would our life look then. Thankfully, he didn't go so I didn't have to think about it for very long.

Unfortunately, our friend isn't thinking about it. He's now living it. And I have prayed over and over that God will wrap him and their families in His arms and just hold them. Hold them tight.

This is not a dress rehearsal folks. We've got this one life. So let's live it. And live it GOOD.