Life Is Not A Dress Rehearsal

Life Is Not a Dress Rehearsal

Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid.

1 Thessalonians 5:14

After a lifelong search for meaning in life, one of the conclusions King Solomon of Israel drew was this: “Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). This is not in contrast to what he says just a few verses prior: “Eat your food with joy, and drink . . . with a happy heart, for God approves of this!” (9:7). In fact, the idea is to live every day to its fullest, which includes both working and playing hard.

Nadine Stair got the message, if only too late. You may not know her name, but you may have heard about something the late Mrs. Stair, of Louisville, Kentucky, said when she was asked several years ago, at age eighty-five, what she would do if she could live her life all over again. She had a memorable answer:

If I had my life to live over, I’d try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax. . . . You see, I was one of those people who lived prophylactically and sensibly and sanely, hour after hour and day after day. Oh, I’ve had my moments. And if I had it to do over again, I would take more chances. I would scale more mountains, I would swim more rivers, and I would watch more sunsets. . . . I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. . . . I would travel lighter, much lighter, than I have. If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring, and I’d stay that way later in the fall. And I would ride more merry-go-rounds, and greet more people, and pick more flowers, and dance more often.^a

Ever feel like the days of your life have become too sensible, too sane—too safe? To put it another way, if you were to rate how well you as an individual are living life to the fullest on a scale of one to ten, how would you answer and why? Does your answer change for you as a couple? What’s one area of your life together in which you would like to be living with more passion and boldness?

He who is overcautious will accomplish but very little.

—Friedrich von Schiller

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