‘Act as if you would die tomorrow’ sounds wise but is in fact incredibly stupid

Often this saying is recommended as a way of, supposedly, getting us to think better about what should count in our lives and what we should be doing as a matter of priority. It has a superficial wise ring about it, as at least it tries to get us to focus on what is genuinely valuable, rather than on what seems valuable but is often not. However, it has often struck me that the saying’s focus is in the wrong place and, despite appearances, is not immediate enough. If I acted as if I would die tomorrow I would likely neglect my common-place obligations, for example, to my work, to putting out the bins/trash, hanging out the washing, filling out my tax returns. Why would I do any of these things if I was acting as if I would die tomorrow? But if, on this assumption, every day we all neglected these common-place (and boring) obligations, then the world would be a much worse place for everyone! What I suggest is a much more radical alternative – we ought to focus, not on what we should do in our lives, if we would die tomorrow, but on how we should be in our lives if we died now. The point being that if we could imagine dying now, we would die to ourselves – so focus on the other person in our lives, whoever they are. Following this dictum, would get us away from prioritising a ‘things-to-do’ list for our own satisfaction, to a much more immediate concern about the quality of our relationships with others in the here-and-now, whatever we are doing. I believe that it is the latter concern that will get our priorities right and preserve and enhance what is really valuable for us all: As Jesus states in John 12:24-25 ‘I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it will remain only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.’ 


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