It’s Your Life – What Are You Waiting For?

Today I watched Joe Versus the Volcano with my family. It’s my birthday; I got to pick the movie. I remembered liking this one years ago, and being inspired by it.

What I forgot was how powerful it is.

It’s the story of a man who is stuck in the drudgery of a dull, unpleasant life. He goes to a job he hates so he can make money, so he can afford a place to live and food to eat. So he can get up in the morning, and go to a job he hates, so he can make money, and so on and so forth. You get the idea. Chances are, you can relate.

Joe doesn’t have a profession or a work—he has a job. He also has a slew of health problems, brought on by the general unpleasantness of his life. So he goes to the doctor. And the doctor gives him some stunning news.

Joe has six months to live.

And therein begins a story of legendary proportions.

“You have some time left. You have some life left. My advice to you is: Live it well.”

I listened to that advice, and it suddenly struck me—today is my birthday, the first day of the rest of my life. I have some time left. I can spend it in paperwork, drudgery, worrying about finances, going here and there to do this and that…so I can go to sleep and wake up and do it all over again.

Or I can take my life in hand and live it well.

Where do I want to be? What do I want to do? Who do I want to be doing it with? If I know the answer to those things, why the heck am I not doing them yet? What in this life could possibly be more important than breathing the moonlight, drinking the presence of a loved one, painting my talents on the canvas of the world?

What’s the point of being alive if you don’t truly live?

My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake…and they live in a state of constant, total amazement.

Joe Versus the Volcano is funny and campy and entertaining. It’s easy to take it as such and not recognize it for what it really is:

One of the most significant movies of all time.

If you haven’t seen it, you must see it. If you’ve seen it, watch it again. Better yet, watch it every year on your birthday.

And then go out and live.

What are you waiting for?

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