A Wasted Life is Worse Than Dying

I just came back across this powerful audio compilation below. Renee and I first encountered it when God grabbed a hold of our hearts in 2000. That year, after several years of marriage as DINKS (dual-income, no kids), we were led to give up the comforts and familiarity of our lives and go the Dominican Republic. And not just go, but lead a group of teenagers whom we didn’t even know through a ministry called Global Expeditions. What God did in our hearts through our experiences that summer forever changed the trajectory of our lives. Upon our return from that trip, Renee and I both quit our full-time jobs. We had come to realize that the American dream we were pursuing, with a nice sprinkling of church of course, was in fact not God’s dream.

Since that summer our lives have had many twists and turns with seasons of extreme closeness to God as well as times of rebellion where we wanted to go back to Egypt (Acts 7:38; Numbers 14). This audio clip reminded me today of the brevity of life and what is really worth living for. It starts out like this…

“Every man gives his life for what he believes. And every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or nothing and yet they give their lives to that little or nothing. One life is all we have. We live it and it’s gone. But to live without belief is more terrible than dying. Even more terrible than dying young.”