Once More

There's a couple of lines from the song "Square One" on Coldplay's most recent album that grab me in a particular way:

From the top of the first page/

To the end of the last day

The words make me think about the last day. The end. Whether our own or the universe's...in a certain sense I'm not sure if it matters.

I sit and I think and I wonder what the last day will be like. What my life and what all our lives will be like. If we'll know that day will be our last.

I have further to ask what I would do were I to know today was my last. Indeed, what any of us would do armed with that fatal information.

Would we, I wonder, do anything different?

Now, of course, the old sermon illustration is that we should live our lives in such a way that every day would be a fitting last day. That each day's journey is taken to the utmost.

While I track with that idealism quite well, I know all the same how messy life is...and how much we let slip through each of our fingers every moment of every day. How many regrets and missed opportunities can haunt us long after their time has passed.

So what, then? What would we do differently if today was our last day? What chances would we take? What lost loves would we track down? What relationships would we try to mend? What parts of our life would we reflect on and hope to recapture as we gazed back over the long course of our life's race?

In short, who would we be on that day?

It might seem morbid to talk of last days. All the same, sitting here thinking about them makes me a little keener on the journey of life, a little happier for the experiences I've had so far and, Lord willing, that I don't have to fit my hopes, dreams, and regrets into the fleeting hours of April 19th. If I did, well...that would be something.

All the same, it's worth considering:

If today's was the last sunset, what would I do? What would you?