Get Busy Living, or Get Busy Dying

If you’re a fan of the movie “The Shawshank Redemption”, you recognized that statement immediately. It is uttered by the main characters in a couple of key moments during the film, and it has always resonated with me, starting from the very first moment I heard it.

From time to time, I can battle the blues. I don’t know what it is about me, but there are certainly days when the world just seems a little bleaker. These are times I pull out this wonderful movie, and go straight to these scenes for a little inspiration. Yesterday was such a day, and I really needed to hear these words.

At times I feel my efforts in life have been rather un-inspiring. I’m not one of those fortunate few who knew from a very early age what they wanted to do in life. My lot, unfortunately, has been not knowing what I wanted to do when I grew up. This can lead to feelings of disenchantment with life, of not knowing if I’m really fulfilling what I was created to do. There are days, I must confess, when I look at myself in the mirror and ask “Is this all there is?”

When I get maudlin and stuck in these ruts, life can seem darker, and rather meaningless. It’s during these times that I think I’m really getting busy dying, and not getting busy living.
You see, we can look at our lives, as we can view many things, from two angles. We can either view ourselves as dying from the very first moment we leave the womb, which has some merit but is a bit depressing, or we can view ourselves as having the opportunity to live life to the absolute fullest each and every day. In other words, living until we die.

So, we can either get busy living, or get busy dying. As with most things, it’s a simple choice, but difficult to execute.

Yesterday, if you’d asked me which of the two choices I was making, I’d have to be honest and tell you I was getting busy dying. But, something inside of me made me pull out that wonderful movie, and watch those key scenes. Minutes after that, I made the decision, once again, to get busy living.

Sometimes, it seems like we have to make that decision over and over and over again. Like I mentioned, it can be seemingly easy to choose to get busy living, but not always easy to sustain it. I know at least for me, that’s true.

But, I think if we pay attention, we’ll catch the signs from God that making the decision to get busy living is a good one in the end. For me, yesterday, that sign was a feeling in my heart to pull out that wonderful movie. The next time I’m faced with this decision it may involve another message from God, sent in a way that I’m most receptive to hearing at that particular time.

One thing is for sure, when you boil life down to its essence, that is the major decision we all have to make: Get busy living, or get busy dying. Make the most of your life, or give up. Some days giving up seems tempting, but I don’t think I’ll ever truly embrace that choice.

Today, I choose to get busy living.

Hope you do too.

-The Minister