Life Only Once?

A few weeks ago a Rafael Nadal fan page on Facebook shared a quote from the tennis superstar:  “I appreciate a lot in this life—the things you cannot buy.  Life is only once.  - Rafael Nadal.”

This statement appears above a photo of Nadal and his wife, Maria Perello.  So the implication, it seems, is that that marriage and family and love have a value that’s beyond the reach of money—that they’re priceless.  He makes a good point.

And coming from a celebrity whose net worth is around $220M, his claim has a certain credibility.  After all, if some precious thing could be bought, he could pay the price.  So maybe this is Nadal’s way of saying that money isn’t all it’s cracked up to be; don’t give your life to the pursuit of wealth.  Again, good counsel.

But there’s another angle on the slogan, “Life is only once.”  Yes, in terms of our time-bound, embodied lives here and now, we only get “three score and ten” (Psalm 90:10); the clock is ticking, and we’re all in decline.  But the impression given by saying “life is only once” is that this life is the sum total of reality.

Decades before Nadal, Schlitz Beer told us, “You only go around once, so go for the gusto!”  And the grain of truth is that we ought to live wholeheartedly—as Christians, of course, for the glory of our Maker.  God has endowed his people with minds, abilities and spiritual gifts to deploy for kingdom impact this side of heaven.

But that’s just it:  there is a heavenly side of reality.  Our 70 or 90 or 110 years here and now are but a blip on the screen, a mere breath compared to eternity.  And yet, the popular culture has no regard for heaven and hell; the pressure of now, now, now suffo­cates any awareness of eternal things.  And we can find ourselves falling into such worldly, desperately short-sighted perspectives.

Don’t fall for it!  Look at everything through the lenses of eternity. And spread the word that there’s more to life than momentary thrills:  Jesus offers everlasting joy (John 3:16)!