A woman in the hospital was weeping after being told she was terminally ill with cancer. When a friend sought to console her she replied, “I’m not weeping because I’m dying. I’m weeping because I never lived.”
The awareness of limits and wasted time means we can take up a conscious stance with regard to our own inevitable mortality. It is this mature insight that will protect us from slavishly following what the culture wants us to do and squandering our time in seeking the approval of others by conforming to their rules and values.
Thanks to W. Robert McClelland
My Commentary: The woman’s words cut to the heart of one of life’s greatest tragedies—not the inevitability of death, but the failure to truly live before death comes. Her weeping was not about losing years, but about never having claimed them as her own. She mourned not her mortality but her missed opportunities.
This is a wake-up call for all of us. Mortality is certain; what remains uncertain is whether we will live fully, authentically, and meaningfully in the time we have.
To “live” in the truest sense means more than merely surviving, chasing cultural trends, or measuring ourselves by the approval of others.
It means pursuing what is good, true, and lasting. It means loving deeply, serving generously, and discovering joy in the ordinary moments.
The awareness of limits—knowing our days are numbered—is not meant to paralyze us, but to free us. When we see clearly that time is short, we gain the courage to stop conforming to empty expectations and to start living with intention.
This is what Scripture calls wisdom: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).
The woman’s regret challenges us to ask: Am I truly living, or merely existing? Am I pursuing the path that brings life, or am I chasing shadows for the sake of appearances?
When death comes, none of us will weep because our years ran out too soon. We will only weep if we realize we never embraced the life we were given.
The invitation, then, is clear: to live now. To live deliberately. To live in such a way that, when the end comes, we can’t say, “I never lived” but “I lived fully, gratefully, and faithfully.”
Ask YOURSELF: Am I truly living, or merely existing? Am I pursuing the path that brings life, or am I chasing shadows for the sake of appearances?
SOMEDAY YOU WILL BE REALLY GRATEFUL THAT GOD GAVE YOU WHAT YOU NEEDED INSTEAD OF WHAT YOU THOUGHT YOU WANTED!
