YOLO
September 11th, 2013I was struck recently by an article in the national media about a 22 year old young student named Samantha Goudie who was arrested after attempting to enter a Northern Illinois -University of Iowa football game last weekend. She registered a .341 blood alcohol content which is, apparently, one of the highest BOCs ever record. The legal limit is normally around .08 and if your BOC reaches 0.4 it can be lethal, according to the Clemson University’s Health Center website.
After she was released, Goudie boasted on her twitter account – YOLO, meaning in urban tweet slang: You Only Live Once. This, in turn, set off a wave of enthusiastic support across the internet as others wanted to see if they could match her “record.” T-shirts were printed, blogs were written and she became an overnight sensation. This is the new 21st century version of Epicureanism. Her boast brought back to my memory a little sign which my mother had displayed in our home growing up. It was the Christian equivalent of YOLO. It said, “Just one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” Christians also have a YOLO message, but it is diametrically opposed to the intended tweet message of Samantha Goudie. For us, it is precisely because we only have one life to live that we want to make it count for Jesus Christ and the kingdom.
In this age of increasing decadence and disregard for the life which God has given to us, let us demonstrate a renewed commitment to a Christian YOLO. We must use all of our energy to call this generation back from the brink of self-destruction and onto a kingdom, life-affirming path. Let us renew our commitment to preaching the gospel of life. Jesus calls us to radical discipleship – and He doesn’t allow us to haggle over the terms. We are called to lay down our lives for Him and to live everyday remembering that “you only live once.”
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