True. Sooooo? How do you want to look back on you and your life? I realize that the title seems to imply throwing away all restraint and ‘going for it’. Not the intent. Definition. ‘You only live once’ is a fact, especially when you consider your physical self. However…
“And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,” (Hebrews 9:27, (NKJV)
Whoa! What’s this about judgment? Judgment! Precisely! No one gets a free ride. You do have to acknowledge and own your own life. This is the basis on which we are ‘evaluated’ by the Lord. A few of the verses that speak to this:
“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,” (Hebrews 9:27)
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done
while in the body, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)“For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:14)
“But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment.” (1 Corinthians 11:31)
Those scriptures are not an exhaustive list, but it does prove the message. If we only live once, our question is – what are we doing with our resources, time, energy, and talents? And what obstacles, problems, etc. do we have when we aren’t acting on who we are? … and when we do! Never forget you have an enemy that tries to pull out all the stops when it comes to you becoming and acting on your best you.
Related to ‘you only live once’ is ‘no one gets a free ride’. You know this intellectually, but sometimes we want to ignore this, push the boundaries, and ‘throw off restraints’. And we all know the eventual outcome – disaster. Then we have the issue of apologizing, attempting to restore, and repenting.
I suspect for some, there’s a sense of relief that (whatever their ‘lot’ is) an end does come. Again. All the wrong reasons for actualizing your life. Ultimately it is your life. You are responsible and you can’t point fingers. The reality is that Jesus came to give us life abundantly (John 10:10). We can walk in this or reject it – but we can’t do both. When we make Jesus our Lord, then we have the ability to walk in abundance. But all these decisions are ours to make. We only live once – in this life… but this is not the end.
